Hong Kong's Wuhan coronavirus records broken twice in the past two days, and medical experts make clear who's to blame!

Voluntary masking (for the most part) 

on the Star Ferry back in January

 Mandatory masking and social distancing 

on the Star Ferry this July

Hong Kong's daily Wuhan coronavirus case tally hit a record high of 113 yesterday.  As if that was not bad enough, the daily number of confirmed cases exceeded that number today by five -- making for a new record high of 118 cases, with additional bad news coming by way of the territory recording its 15th fatality from the coronavirus to date earlier today.  

I realize that there are people in other, way harder hit parts of the world (like the USA or Brazil) who would celebrate if their country had Hong Kong's Wuhan coronavirus numbers.  But it needs to be borne in mind that it took Hong Kong just 56 days to double its coronavirus case numbers from 1,066 to 2,132 (as of yesterday).  Also, while the territory had its first coronavirus fatality in early February, and lost four more people to the coronavirus between then and early part of July, it now has had a further eight coronavirus fatalities in the past 11 days.  In other words: This past few weeks have been a disaster relative to the previous months with regards to the coronavirus' impact on Hong Kong.

So it's only to be expected, then, that anti-Wuhan coronavirus measures have been further stepped up; with face masks now being mandatory in all indoor public spaces (including malls and building lobbies) as well as on public transportation.  Ironically, this makes it so that Hong Kong both has regulations mandating the wearing of masks as well as making the wearing of masks in public illegal (with the legal challenge to the latter still ongoing!)!

Although there is some joy to be had from seeing Carrie Lam effectively doing a big u-turn with regards to mask wearing, there also is a sense that all this mask talk is an attempt to, well, mask the real problems. After all, it's not like the vast majority of Hong Kongers haven't already been wearing masks when venturing out of their homes.  

Rather, it's widely believed that Hong Kong's third Wuhan coronavirus wave came about by way of further government mis-steps: namely, "a cavalcade of quarantine exceptions granted by the city's government". (And making things worse it its strange decisions as to what constituted "high risk" places for coronavirus infections; with the likes of the USA, Brazil and UK not being considered to be such even while such as Indonesia, the Philippines and India justifiably are).

 

There therefore have been calls to further tighten the SAR's border controls and make it so that far fewer people are allowed into Hong Kong without being tested for the coronavirus or going through quarantine than the 200,000 or so that freely entered the territory between February and June thanks to their falling into the 33 categories of persons exempted from doing so.  And those demands surely will only become louder after Dr Gabriel Leung, dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Hong Kong, stated for the record today that new analysis of recent coronavirus samples suggests that the current wave of infections was brought in from outside of Hong Kong, most likely by people exempted from mandatory quarantine.

Should it not be clear: This medical expert's statement goes against the Hong Kong government's position that the exemptions did not trigger the recent surge in infections.  And further signs that medical experts are dissatisfied with how the Hong Kong government is (mis)handling the pandemic came about at the Hong Kong Medical Association press conference this afternoon, when the association's president, Dr Gabriel Choi Kin, ascribed Hong Kong's inability to carry out as many coronavirus tests daily as Singapore (20,000) or Macau (11,000) to its having a different head of government from them (with the clear implication being that he's talking about a qualitative difference between Hong Kong's and the two other territories!). 

More than by the way, Dr Choi seems to be quite the interesting fellow.  Among other things, he's both a past as well as current president of the Hong Kong Medical Association -- which would make him a real sucker for punishment as well as popular among, and respected by, his peers.  The good doctor also has a track record for being rather cheeky.  Exhibit A from earlier this year: the hand gestures he made when posing for photos at a previous Hong Kong Medical Association press conference.  Exhibit B, also from earlier this year: his having suggested that the People's Liberation Army bases in Hong Kong -- and/or the premises of the old Central Hotel, close to the Chief Executive's residence -- be used as quarantine facilities for coronavirus cases! :D