Hong Kong's fifth coronavirus wave has arrived, close to the two year anniversary of the arrival of a Wuhan man infected with a then mystery illness!

 

Hong Kong's 4th vs 5th coronavirus wave chart of locally 

transmitted infections put up today on Twitter by @tripperhead

 

The following is the first paragaph of a blog entry I wrote two years and one day ago:   

A man visiting Hong Kong from Wuhan tested positive for the Wuhan coronavirus that has infected hundreds of people in Mainland China alone and now has killed seventeen people there.  He came to Hong Kong via the hated Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link which already upset people because of its co-location arrangements which gave Mainland China immigration authority on a section of Hong Kong territory and was used in the abduction of Simon Cheng last year, when the Hong Konger was working for the British consulate general in Hong Kong.

Two years and one day on, the pandemic involving the Wuhan coronavirus (which has now come to be more popularly referred to as Covid -- or, more formally, as COVID-19; which I must admit to rolling off the tongue easier than Wuhan or "novel" coronavirus) is far from over.  And, in fact, there now is little doubt that a fifth wave of it has arrived in Hong Kong after some 170 new cases were (already) discovered -- and of the Omicron variant at that -- at a single housing estate in Kwai Chung.  

For the record: Hong Kong reported 140 new Covid cases today; of which just 15 were imported.  As you may imagine, it's a shock for many in this territory since we've had just imported cases (rather than local transmissions), and often just in the single digits, for months until very recently.  An excerpt from a sample Tweet -- from artist Elizabeth Briel -- today: "OMG. Neighbors in Sham Shui Po and studio mates are terrified. Basically not going anywhere."

 

At the same time though, despite predictions to the contrary, I've not witnessed any panic buying in supermarkets this weekend.  (But, then, I'm one of those people who decided to stay in all day today!)  Still, as per a report by Joyce Lau this afternoon, "There’s no panic buying. The supermarket shelves are full. But people (including me) are stocking up in case our building is affected by a #covid lockdown." 

 

Speaking of Covid lockdowns: The latest involves one tonight at a housing estate in Tai Wo Hau.  For ther record: Hong Kong's very first "ambush lockdown" occured just one day short of two years ago.  On that day (January 24, 2021), I naively voiced my hope that it'd be Hong Kong's last as well as first "ambush lockdown".  Instead, there ended up being a total of 69 of them in Hong Kong last year and it is looking like that number could well be passed in 2020 before the end of this month (despite it just having about a week left to go!); this since the 44 counted by Nathan Hammond doesn't include the ones that are currently ongoing, including the unprecedented 5-day lockdowns of two residential blocks at Kwai Chung Estate.    

As one might expect, there are fears that Mainland Chinese-style lockdowns of entire cities will come to Hong Kong.  And it's worth bearing in mind that some of the Chinese cities subjected to lockdowns, including Wuhan (population: 13 million) and Xian (also population 13 million) have a larger population size than the Big Lychee!

At the same time, there also is a feeling that the authorities in Hong Kong may simply be too incompetent to be able to actually effect at Mainland Chinese-style lockdown in the city.  Already images have been circulating of scenes at Kwai Chung Estate that are on the chaotic side (and look like they could create further superspreader events), with garbage piling up on floors and arrangements failing to be made to supply residents in the lockdowned block with dinner last night.  (At the same time, arrangements were successfully made to have Carrie Lam go and visit Kwai Chung Estate -- though, as you can imagine, Hong Kong's most unpopular Chief Executive ever wasn't greeted with much enthusiam there!)

Meanwhile, it seems like some Hong Kong officials are starting to backpedal from the Zero Covid strategy that Hong Kong (and Mainland China) have long been pushing.  For example, we had University of Hong Kong microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung (whose popularity has plummeted in recent weeks thanks to such as his advocating a reduction of quarantine time at Penny's Bay after government officials ended up being installed there thanks to Partygate and comments he made in relation to hamstergeddon) coming out today and stating that the ""Zero Covid" strategy itself is not sustainable, but was supposed to "buy time" for vaccination rate to increase".  

 

But, as pretty much every sane, intelligent person now wants to know: "If [the Zero Covid strategy] was supposed to buy time why did gov’t put so little effort into vaccine promotion compared to say the election or [national security law] promotion?"   Seriously, can you imagine how high Hong Kong's vaccine rates would be if the authorities had actually gone all out to promote and educate the public about the importance of coronavirus vaccines?  (Though, of course, one wonders how successful they would have been even if they genuinely put maximum effort into a vaccine campaign with trust and respect for the authorities being so very low.  After all, it's not like they were super successful in getting people to go out and vote at the Legislative Council "elections" last month!)