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Medical workers take samples from taxi drivers at a temporary specimen collection point for Covid-19 testing. Photo: Edmond So

Hong Kong third wave: Carrie Lam steps up fight against coronavirus, with masks to be made mandatory in indoor public places and civil servants working from home

  • Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam also warns the city could be hit by another wave of infections in winter, just as health experts had feared
  • Hong Kong reports a record-high 108 confirmed Covid-19 infections, of which 83 are locally transmitted and 25 imported
  • Key points:
    • Wearing a mask to become mandatory in indoor public places such as shopping centres
    • Civil servants to work from home for a week from Monday. Only emergency and essential public services will be provided
    • Rules on restaurants extended for a week to July 28: dine-in services banned from 6pm until 5am; only four people per table allowed
    • About 2,000 more quarantine units to be built near Hong Kong Disneyland. AsiaWorld-Expo being converted to house stable coronavirus patients and will accommodate elderly residents if outbreaks occur at more care homes
    • Government urges schools to give Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) candidates their results online so they do not have to visit campus
    Hong Kong has stepped up its fight against the worsening coronavirus crisis, with the government to make the wearing of masks mandatory in indoor public places, while also ordering civil servants to work from home and ramping up quarantine facilities, as the city confirmed more than 100 new cases on Sunday.
    Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced the raft of measures as she warned the city could be hit by another wave of infections in winter, just as health experts had feared.

    “The situation is very severe and there are no signs this is getting under control,” Lam said.

    But she added that more cases had been reported because the government had conducted mass testing. On average, she said, 10,000 people were tested for Covid-19 each day in the past week, more than the 7,500 tests medical experts had suggested.

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    Hong Kong tightens social-distancing rules as Covid-19 cases soar

    Hong Kong tightens social-distancing rules as Covid-19 cases soar

    The health authorities, meanwhile, said the city reported 108 new cases – a record high – from 4pm on Saturday until midnight, and that there had been more than 20 confirmed infections on Sunday. Including new infections, the tally of confirmed cases soared to at least 1,905, with 12 deaths.

    Lam said the Department of Justice was working on the legal amendments to require the wearing of masks in indoor public places, after the government last week made it mandatory to use face coverings on public transport.

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    A government source said shopping centres would come under the definition of “indoor public places” but not offices, for example. The law was expected to come into effect this week, the source added.

    Under the Prevention and Control of Disease Regulation, a “public place” refers to where the public or a section of the public may or are permitted to have access to, whether by payment or not.

    Asked why the government would not make it compulsory for people to wear masks in outdoor public places as well, health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee said many of the recent new infections involved those who had visited indoor establishments such as malls and restaurants.

    Following the ban last week on dine-in services at restaurants from 6pm to 5am, many people had visited supermarkets and markets to buy groceries, Chan said, and some did not wear masks.

    “When people exercise outdoors, for example, when they are jogging, it’s hard for them to wear masks,” she said. “That’s why we decided to target indoor public places first.”

    The spike in cases, especially those with an unknown source, shows that current prevention measures are too lax
    Dr Leung Chi-chiu, head of HKMA’s advisory committee on communicable diseases

    Confirming an earlier Post report, Lam said the city’s civil servants would work from home for a week from Monday, and that only “emergency and essential services” would be provided.

    She refuted criticism that the work-from-home arrangements had come too late, saying the government made the decision after reviewing the latest coronavirus situation.

    When the government limited public services to only emergency and essential services in March, Lam said, many people were against the decision because their businesses had been affected.

    A worker disinfects Pei Ho Street Market in Sham Shui Po. Photo: AFP

    Hours after Lam’s announcement, Chinese University said that from Monday until next Sunday, staff should work from home, except for employees providing essential services.

    Lam also said the 52,000 or so candidates for this year’s university entrance exam would receive their results as expected on July 22. But schools had been advised to tell students their results online rather than asking them to collect them on campus.

    If some students needed to get the results in person, Lam said, schools had to ensure they returned in groups and not all at once.

    The 6pm to 5am ban on dine-in services at restaurants and the rule limiting tables to only four people would be extended for a week to July 28. The closure of bars and 12 other types of premises, including gyms and karaoke lounges, would also be extended to the same date.

    Lam said the government had also considered banning dine-in services during breakfast and lunch, but decided against it because many people needed to eat out.

    She warned that more measures could be introduced if the situation worsened. She added that some cities around the world had banned people from going out, but Hong Kong had not followed suit over the past six months or so because the government wanted citizens to still be able to live normally.

    On facilities, Lam said 2,000 more quarantine units would be built near Hong Kong Disneyland and that AsiaWorld-Expo was being converted to accommodate stable Covid-19 patients and elderly residents in the event of further outbreaks at care homes.

    The Hospital Authority would take over Lei Yue Mun holiday village, currently used as a quarantine centre for suspected cases, for confirmed Covid-19 patients who were in stable condition. It provides about 300 beds.

    Carrie Lam says the coronavirus situation is very severe. Photo: Edmond So

    According to the authority, there were 1,207 isolation beds and 650 wards citywide, with an occupancy rate of 68 and 74 per cent, respectively, as of Sunday.

    Lam said: “In addition to filling the current needs, the new facilities will also help Hong Kong better manage the next wave, as experts are expecting a new outbreak in winter.”

    From next Saturday, people entering Hong Kong from seven high-risk countries, including India and Pakistan, would be required to spend their 14-day quarantine at government-approved hotels before going to their own homes.

    AsiaWorld-Expo will be used for Covid-19 patients. Photo: Felix Wong

    Dr Leung Chi-chiu, chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association’s advisory committee on communicable diseases, said it should be made compulsory to wear masks outdoors.

    “The spike in cases, especially those with an unknown source, shows that current prevention measures are too lax,” Leung said.

    He said it was more likely that most new infections were caused by an increase in social gatherings, rather than the number of cases rising because of mass testing as Lam had explained.

    “The cases found from the tests are only a small proportion of the total,” he said.

    Most of the government’s 180,000-strong workforce will resume work-from-home arrangements on Monday. Photo: Nora Tam

    At a separate briefing, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection warned of a possible collapse of the city’s health care system.

    “If this situation continues, we won’t have enough quarantine centres, or even hospitals. Hong Kong’s medical system could easily collapse, so we must stand in solidarity, stay at home, see a doctor if you feel unwell, and don’t go out if there’s no special [reason],” she said.

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    Chuang said that of the 108 new infections, 83 were locally transmitted while 25 were imported.

    Of the 83 local cases, 48 were from unknown sources, and included three taxi drivers and a worker at a frozen meat stall in Hung Hom market.

    Many of the cases with unknown sources of transmission also included housewives and elderly people who visited restaurants, markets and parks every day, Chuang added.

    The 108 cases involved 45 males and 63 females, aged between seven and 91 years, the centre said.

    Between July 6 and Sunday, more than 40 per cent, or more than 220 of the 492 locally confirmed cases were of unknown sources.

    For new imported cases, 15 were from the Philippines, including three seamen and 10 domestic workers. The rest were from countries including Pakistan, France and the United States.

    Chuang said the coronavirus had become more contagious than the last wave in March.

    “The viral load [in recent patients] has been high, meaning the coronavirus is highly contagious,” she said.

    “For some individual cases, patients were [infected] only after coming into contact with an infected person, without their masks on, for a few minutes. Some other cases saw people coming into contact with their masks on. We are not sure whether these people were in contact with a contaminated environment.”

    Additional reporting by Tony Cheung, Lilian Cheng and Victor Ting

    This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: lam ramps up defences to stem surge
    Post