Hong Kong's pandemic nightmare continues, no thanks to continued the authorities' political shenanigans

Long lines outside a vaccination center dispensing Sinovac vaccines

 

Has Hong Kong's fifth coronavirus wave peaked?  There are some suggestions that it has done so since, following three consecutive days of over 50,000 new cases being reported last week, yesterday saw a fall in the number of reported new cases from 37,529 on Saturday to 31,008 -- and ditto today, with the reporting of 25,150 new cases (32 of which are imported ones). 

 

But the more suspicious minded among us wonder whether the fall in the number of reported cases is due more to fewer people being required to undergo Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing or and many people not reporting their positive Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) results to the government.  With regards to the latter: there appear to be few incentives for -- and many disincentives against -- reporting one's positive RAT results.  Also, the government's website that allowed people to do so online was only launched today! 

 

Starkly put: How many Hong Kongers do you reckon would want to end up being quarantined in a facility run by the Security Bureau, like has happened to some unfortunates?  And this even before negative reports came out about how terrible they physically are (and, to add to the inconvenience, equipped with Chinese-style sockets that are incompatible with Hong Kong plugs) and badly they are being run.  

 

And while a man admitted to the Security Bureau facility at Tsing Yi appeared to have reacted in an overly dramatic way to not having provided with a single meal for a whole day (by threatening to kill himself!), I must admit to having reacted with quite a bit horror too upon reading that the Security Bureau also will have a hand in deciding who is sent to the Community Isolation Facilities that are ostensibly for Covid patients but look too much like prisons (complete with bars on their windows) for my liking!  This particularly since that piece of information came in the wake of the news that the Hong Kong government is going to deploy some 4,000 riot police officers "to assist in the city’s upcoming mass Covid-19 testing" and "escort [Covid] patients to the hospital or community isolation facilities and enforce building lockdowns"!     

 

As Bloomberg editor Matthew Brooker Tweeted in the wake of this news: "Everything is a security issue in Hong Kong."  Alternatively, here's Hong Kong-based history professor Noah Shusterman's Tweeted reaction to the news of the Hong Kong riot police going to be "assisting" in transporting Covid patients: "When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a skull."

 

All in all, the Hong Kong government has certainly not covered itself in glory with regards to its handling of the pandemic.  Among the people showing a lack of confidence in the authorities: expats, including bankers, who have decided to leave Hong Kong in droves (along with those Hongkongers upset with not just Hong Kong's Covid situation, and whose exodus began months earlier).  And for the record: "A total of 5,082 people departed Hong Kong on Sunday, the most since the city was hit with its most severe and far-reaching wave of Covid"; and "[n]et departures from Hong Kong reached 22,965 in [the] week ending March 6, [making it the] third record in a row".  

 

And then there are the deaths. 280 Covid deaths were reported in Hong Kong today; and 1,438 in the past week.  And while the elderly (especially the unvaccinated among them) continue to be the most likely to succumb to Covid, two of today's deaths involved young children: one 8 years of age; the other of whom was just four years old.  

 

A comparison of Hong Kong vis a vis three other Asia-Pacific territories also currently experiencing severe Omicron waves is eye-opening, particularly with regards to the number of Covid deaths in Hong Kong vis a vis Singapore, Taiwan and New Zealand.  To be clear: only Hong Kong has "an extremely high death toll" -- because of the low vaccination levels among Hong Kong's elderly and more of Hong Kong's vaccinated having been vaccinated with the less protective/effective Sinovac as opposed to, say, BioNTech/Pfizer or Moderna.  Something else which Hong Kong-based microbiologist Siddharth Sridhar has pointed out as contributing to this disaster: "overwhelmed healthcare".        

 

Another Hong Kong-based medical expert, David Owens, sums up Hong Kong's current pandemic situation as follows: "This is what happens when public health policy ignores science [.]  Predictable, preventable and political".  Speaking of political: The Hong Kong police today re-arrested Winnie Yu, the nurse-activist who was the founder and chairwoman of the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance (HAEA), a labour union representing Hospital Authority staff.  

 

Yu had been arrested on February 28th of last year along with 46 others who organized and/or took part in the July 2020 democratic camp primaries that may well be the last time Hong Kongers got to vote for political candidates they actually liked, respected and wanted to represent them but was one of the minority of individuals let out on bail ahead of the arrestees' national security law trial which still has yet to properly get underway.  

 

And I sincerely hope that those of her former colleagues at the Hospital Authority who recently spoke out against the Hong Kong government's zealous pursuit of  the "Covid Zero" strategy (dynamic or not) do not suffer her fate.  If only the authorities would listen to the frontliners rather than threaten and/or overload them.  Frankly, it doesn't sound like they need medical experts, especially those from Mainland China, to tell them what's happening and what should be done.  

 

A few sample quotes from the Hong Kong Free Press article yesterday about them should well illustrate this: "As public hospitals become increasingly overcrowded, frustration has grown among frontline medics who said the government continues to stand by the same Covid-19 policy as two years ago, when little was known about the virus and vaccines were not available"; "Resources and manpower are being deployed from hospitals to isolation facilities for patients with minimal symptoms, while inconsistent government messaging has sent healthy Covid-positive patients rushing to emergency units, causing days-long waits for those needing urgent attention"; and "It was always a very stupid idea to think we could have zero Covid forever".   

Hong Kong's high Covid death rates, low vaccination rates among the elderly, and continued problematic government messaging

Today's headline news in Hong Kong

 

After three consecutive days of new Wuhan coronavirus case numbers that went past the 50,000 mark (including Wednesday's 55,353, Thursday's 56,827 and yesterday's 52,523), which prompted people to wonder if Hong Kong had reached its testing capacity, the number went down today to 37,529 (of which all but 6 are local cases).  Sadly though, the number of recorded Covid deaths hit a record high today: with today's 220 fatalities showing that a distinct upward trend in fatalities that began on February 10th is very much continuing.

 

Even before today's latest Covid death numbers were released, Hong Kong already had "earned" the distinction of now being the territory with the world’s highest fatality rate for the coronavirus.  And the reason why is something that many people (public health experts, journalists and regular Hong Kongers among them) had forseen months in advance: namely, that Hong Kong had a lower than average vaccination rate for a part of the developed world; and this particularly so with regards to the elderly.

 

This is all particularly frustrating and tragic because it could have been so easily avoidable.  After all, Hong Kong's free Covid vaccination program actually was rolled out back in early 2021, with people over 60 years of age among those given priority (along with such as healthcare staff and staff involved in anti-epidemic work).  But the fact of the matter is that, to quote journalist Oliver Farry, "the Hong Kong government’s passivity in getting the elderly vaccinated and giving them proper information on the vaccines is disgraceful negligence".

 

Before anything else: yes, politics was involved.  As Elson Tong Tweeted: "[Hong Kong] pandemic measures were in part designed to reshape/control public behaviour after the 2019 protests, thus they targeted and were in practice likely to be enforced against young people and their venues. Having been less inconvenienced, the elderly vaccination rate stagnated".  And here's The Economist's Don Weiland on the same subject: "The weaponisation of public health measures in Hong Kong to deny people rights enshrined in the basic law is something that will go down as one of the govt’s vilest moves during this period".   

 

Even if we were to set aside the Hong Kong government's questionable prioritization of the suppression of Hong Kongers over the coronavirus: there's the issue of there just not being very good at communicating with the public.  Take, as an example, its statements about the BioNTech vaccine.  Rather than point out that it actually is the same as the vaccine more internationally well known as Pfizer, the Hong Kong government has tended to refer to it by another name (i.e., BioNTech but also Fosun-BioNTech and Comirnaty).

 

And to compound the problem and cast doubt on the manufacturing origins of the BioNTech vaccine that Hong Kong gets, it has made mention of a "Baxter in Germany" or "a plant in Baxter, Germany" being involved in its production.  Here's the thing: there is NO village, town or city in Germany that's named Baxter.  On the other hand, there IS a sterile fill/finish manufacturing facility in Halle/Westfalen, Germany, that's operated by Baxter BioPharma Solutions and involved in the manufacturing of the BioNTech vaccine.  And that, of course, is the "Baxter in Germany" in question.

 

Truly, there are times when the Hong Kong's particular way with words can be so exasperating (to put it lightly).  Speaking of which: A further eight individuals were jailed for "rioting" by Hong Kong's courts today.  Five of those found guilty were sentenced to three and a half years behind bars, while the other defendants will serve three years and nine months each.  This because the presiding judge, Douglas Yau, had decided that "the case was severe as some protesters threw objects towards the police station, and pointed laser lights at officers."  (I leave you to be the judge as to whether the punishment fits the crime, and what I think of it.)

 

More re Hong Kong's courts: They will temporarily cease operation from next Monday (March 7th) until at least April 11th as a result of how serious Hong Kong's fifth wave has become.  But there of course is no mention of bail being granted bail to those behind bars who haven't been found guilty of anything (because their cases have not gone to trial yet, never mind verdicts having been reached for them).  And ditto re releasing prisoners on health grounds in view of the raging pandemic, including -- or probably especially -- political prisoners like 75-year-old cancer sufferer Koo Sze-yiu (who, it's newly being reported, does not have Covid but still was not physically well enough to attend a court hearing this week). :(

Hong Kong's pandemic woes continue but have not brought its political ones to a standstill

Victoria Harbour view from the North Point-Hung Hom ferry

that's now stopped services until who knows when!

 

In recent days, Hong Kong's reported number of new daily Covid cases have gone past the 50,000 mark.  Yesterday saw a record 55,353 new cases reported; while today saw the number rise some more to 56,827 and the overall number of Omicron fatalities go past the 1,000 mark to 1,153.  

 

And with 78 patients currently in critical condition and 116 whose conditions have been adjudged to be serious, it is extremely likely that the number of Covid deaths will increase again tomorrow.  (BTW, note that Hong Kong's total number of Covid deaths as of today is 1,366 -- which gives a very good idea how well the territory looked to be doing against the coronavirus until this fifth wave of the pandemic hit.)  

Yesterday's RTHK report about the pandemic situation in Hong Kong was done in what presumably was supposed to be a neutral tone.  But some of the lines in it sent chills down my spine.  A prime example: "As the number of Covid-related deaths remains high, a chief manager of the Hospital Authority, Larry Lee, said large freezer containers that can store up to a total of 500 bodies will be set up at public hospitals."  Put another way: the sense very much appears to be that thousands more Hong Kongers will die from Covid in the coming weeks, if not days.

 

I think it is fair to say that a good number of those who die will be unvaccinated folks -- or those vaccinated just once or twice with Sinovac (rather than BioNTech/Pfizer -- which it seems that a number of Hong Kongers still mistakenly believe is made in China).  A high number will also be elderly folks (since over 70 year olds -- and, especially, over 80 year olds -- are the Hong Kongers who are least likely to be (fully) vaccinated as well as vulnerable); with elderly care home deaths being at an unconscionably high number.      

Another group of institutions which I worry about being hit by Covid are the prisons whose inmates currently include close to 1,000 political prisoners.  (And what does it say that Hong Kong currently has more than double the number of political prisoners than Russia?!)  And, yes, I must admit that I particularly worry about the more elderly of Hong Kong's political prisoners, who include 75-year-old Koo Sze-yiu, 74-year-old Jimmy Lai, 70-year-old Albert Ho, 65-year-old Claudia Mo, 65-year-old "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung and 65-year-old Lee Cheuk-yan.  

So it was disturbing to learn today that Koo Sze-yiu, Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan are among the around 1,000 Hong Kong prison inmates who have been caught Covid while incarcerated.  And while it's somewhat assuring to read that Ho and Lee are reportedly asymptomatic, it's worrying indeed to see reports that Koo -- who has late stage cancer as well as is a septuagenarian -- was unable to attend a court hearing today because he was feeling unwell.  

 

Speaking of court hearings and cases: The Hong Kong Correctional Services Department announced today that lawyers will not be able to visit their clients in prison for at least 2 weeks from March 7th to 20th as a result to infections not only in the prisons but also among the prison guards.  But the courts continue to operate -- and today alone saw three cases involving political prisoners proceed apace.

 

Indeed, yesterday saw the verdict delivered on a key political case: that of Tam Tak-chi.  First arrested back in July 2020, the former radio deejay turned political activist and erstwhile vice-chairman of pro-democracy party People Power has been behind bars since a subsequent arrest in September 2020.  And after being found guilty of 11 charges of sedition yesterday by National Security Law judge Stanley Chan yesterday morning, one can imagine him spending many more years languishing behind bars for what are, essentially, mere speech crimes. 

Perhaps is the fear of prosecution that has led German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) to not mention the title of an award-winning Hong Kong documentary about the anti-extradition law protests when reporting that it's created a buzz in Taiwan, where it is currently having a record-breaking theatrical run.  And this despite the reporter who wrote the piece, William Yang, being based in Taiwan, not Hong Kong.  And yes, for the record: I really would like to view Kiwi Chow's Revolution of Our Time.  But, very sadly, the likelihood of my doing so is pretty much nil due to my being in Hong Kong, where the film was made and its director continues to reside.

Panic buying and certain items in short supply in Hong Kong once again :(

Not many people on board the North Point-Hung Hom 

ferry these days, it looks like!

 

I've spent a good part of the last two days out shopping for necessities.  Over the weekend, I ran out of rice but decided to wait to get some on a weekday.  Fortunately, despite scary photographs appearing on social media of supermarket shelves stripped bare, I managed to do so with surprising ease at the very first supermarket I went to yesterday afternoon.  

 

Still, that trip to the supermarket wasn't as stress-free as is usually the case for me.  For one thing, there was a far longer queue at the checkout than I commonly encounter.  Which made for far less social distancing than I would like at a time when Hong Kong has officially gone past the 30,000 mark with regards to reported new daily cases (a record 34,466 yesterday and 32,597 today). 

 

Also, I did notice that some panic buying had taken place as the chilled meat section of the store was pretty denuded of stock.  (I'm guessing that the recent closing of the abbatoirs at Sheung Shui and Tsuen Wan as a result of dozens of Covid infections having been detected in the slaughterhouses forced lots of people who usually get their meat at the wet markets into the supermarkets to get imported meat instead.)  

 

It seems that a lot of people were less successful than me yesterday with regards to their grocery shopping expeditions.  Because this morning saw people waiting outside supermarkets ahead of their opening, presumably to get what they were unable to get the day before or had newly run out of!   

Another shock with regards to the supermarkets came by way of my discovering that a number of them, including 240 branches of ParknShop (one of Hong Kong's two major supermarket chains), had shortened their opening hours beginning today.  Walking by a Wellcome Superstore that usually stays open until midnight, I found that, starting today (until who knows when), it will close at 5pm instead!

 

The government says there's no need for people to panic (buy) and stockpile goods.  But when people know that a lockdown is imminent, but don't know when and for how long it will be for, of course they are going to panic -- or, at the very least, decide that they need to plan ahead by doing such as stocking up!  And, okay, yes, all this panic buying/stocking up may be creating artificial shortages of items.  But, on an individual level, one feels obliged to get certain things before they do disappear from the shelves for who knows how long!  

Hong Kongers remember all too well the mask, hand sanitizer and other shortages which occured in early 2020 (and for the record, the items that ended up being ever so hard to procure back then included rice).  In fact, so scarred have I been by the great toilet paper shortage of February 2020 that I no longer allow myself to wait until I'm on the last toilet paper roll, like was previously the case, before I go off and buy more of it!

 

So, even while I still have a box worth or so still of masks, I decided to go and get some more today -- and found, to my horror, that KF94 masks (which I switched to from surgical masks at the beginning of 2022) appear to be thinner on the ground now as a result of my being far from the only person who's taken to wearing them during this fifth coronavirus wave that's fuelled by the highly infectious Omicron variant. 

 

For the record: I did manage to find stores selling them -- though they were out of stock at two branches of the store that's been my "go to" for masks for some months now, with a staffer at one of the branches telling me that they won't have KF94 masks in stock again until at least the end of this month!  And for good measure, I ended up buying more rapid antigen test (RAT) kits too for "just in case" (though, right now, they appear to be available in lots of places)!

 

And, then, after I got home, I learnt that painkillers also have disappeared from many shelves!  That's just another headache to have to deal with, including the (temporary -- but for how long?) closing of 53 branches of Hong Kong's largest pharmacy chains along with a number of commercial establishments, including over 400 bank branches!  

 

Will there be a bank note shortage at some point in the not to distant future?  I'm wondering if the fear of that is why there have been long queues outside some banks which have remained open for business.  Another type of establishment that I've seen queues extending outside of it in recent days: private clinics.  

 

At first, I wondered if lots of people who were feeling sick had flocked to see doctors for their (minor) ailments.  But I've read that many people have been flocking to private clinics to be vaccinated in recent days.  Which is a shame -- because they waited until we're in the middle of the worst part of a pandemic that's been going for over two years now to finally do so and, also, because the vaccines being dispensed for the most part by the private clinics is the much less effective Sinovac (rather than BioNTech/Pfizer)! 

Covid records breaking in Hong Kong, and many people's hearts too

Queue outside a community testing centre

 

Hong Kong registered another record number day of new coronavirus cases today.  I know I'm repeating myself again but I still feel obliged to point it out all the same: this particularly since the numbers have gotten so high so fast that they're almost hard to believe.  

 

For the record: Hong Kong saw 26,026 new Covid cases today (of which only six were imported).  Remember those days not so long ago of not only zero new cases but also when the number of imported cases would far exceed local ones?  They can seem like but a dream now, and these days of new daily case numbers that are have reached five figures like a sad nightmare.

 

Similarly, it wasn't all that long ago too when the only people I personally knew who had Covid were those who lived abroad.  To date, the United States of America is the country where I've had the most friends come down with Covid (including one who told me that she lost her sense of taste and smell for three months!).  Other territories where I know people who caught Covid include Malaysia (one of whom ended up dying from it) and France (involving a family of three, whose young unvaccinated son suffered more from being infected than his "boosted" parents). 

Yesterday afternoon, a friend living here in Hong Kong messaged me to say that she had come down with a fever and suspected that she been infected by the coronavirus.  And after she took a rapid antigen test (RAT) (kits of which are the latest "must have" in town), the results were indeed positive.  

 

Earlier today, she messaged again to tell me that her fever had broke but that she was feeling on the tired side.  I hope that fever and fatigue will be the extent of her symptoms.  And the chances that this will be so is helped by her being double (though not triple) vaxxed with the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, not being elderly in age and not having any serious pre-existing medical conditions.    

 

Spare a thought though for those who are not, and have succumbed to the coronavirus -- whose numbers have dramatically increased in recent days and weeks too along with that of new cases.  For the record: Hong Kong reported 83 new deaths today alone; bringing the total number of confirmed Covid deaths in Hong Kong up to 717.  

Something that is most definitely worth highlighting: Hong Kong now has a 7-day average daily Covid deaths per 1 million population number of 8.15: higher than the USA's 5.23 and the United Kingdom's 1.80 as well as Japan's 1.85 and Singapore's 1.36.  And it's easy to explain why.  Specifically, Hong Kong has a criminally low vaccination rate among the elderly; with less than 50% of all seniors aged 70 years and above having been vaccinated, and the percentage dropping to less than 30% if we were to look at seniors age 80 and above (despite 70% of the eligible population having been fully vaccinated).  

 

As Oiwan Lam noted a week ago, "Unlike... western countries which mobilized and prioritized the elderly to be vaccinated, Hong Kong has taken a coercive approach on the city’s working force and students to boost the vaccination rates. Even after the Omicron outbreak, only around 40 percent of those aged above 80-year-old had received at least one dose."  In addition:"We all know that the elderly are the most vulnerable group in Hong Kong but their vaccination rate has remained low and the majority of them have chosen Sinovac rather than BioNTech. This is due to the failure in public communication and proactive policy targeting at vulnerable groups."

 

I don't think it can be emphasized how big an advantage the vaccinated have vis a vis the unvaccinated with regards to their bodies being able to deal with the coronavirus.  As evidence: data released today on the first 284 Covid related deaths in Hong Kong's fifth wave showed that 91% of them had not been fully vaccinated (meaning that they had not been vaccinated at all or just received one jab rather than the two or even three that some of us have had).  

 

Then there's the issue of one of the vaccines offered here in Hong Kong, Sinovac, being shown to be far less effective than the other (BioNTech-Pfizer).  A University of Hong Kong study has shown that "after receiving a booster, the effectiveness of three doses of the BioNTech vaccine may be as high as 89 per cent, declining to 86 per cent after three months and 77 per cent after six months, whereas three doses of Sinovac may only be 36 per cent effective, falling drastically to 19 per cent after three months, and standing at a mere 8 per cent after six months".   

 

With this kind of information it hand, the continued offering of Sinovac vaccines in Hong Kong can only be seen as a political decision rather than a sound medical one.  And, actually, it's pretty clear that much, if not all, of Hong Kong's pandemic response has been informed far more by politics than science.  

 

The fifth wave has laid bare why doing so is so wrong.  It's not just the shocking case numbers and rising fatalities.  It's also such as the misery that has been heaped on Hong Kongers by way of such as multiple "ambush lockdowns" (notably the multi-day ones over at Kwai Chung that caused at least one death), crazy long lines of people taking part in mandatory testing and quarantine stays at Penny's Bay that have resulted in suicide attempts.  The latest heart-breaking horror, reported today, involves morgues that are near capacity.  What next?  I shudder to think.  Truly.  :( 

Stand with Ukraine but please also consider the plight of the political prisoners in Covid-ravaged Hong Kong!

A place in Hong Kong for people who stand with 

Ukraine and Hong Kong

 

I usually focus on Hong Kong matters these days but it's impossible to ignore what's happening in Ukraine.  The member of the Hong Kong Twitterati who goes by K spoke for many of us when he Tweeted the following: "Look, as a HKer living in relative tranquility compared to what's happening in Ukraine right now, we are by no means well versed in war or much of anything else. What we are well versed in however, is recognizing and living under psychotic tyrants ruining everything."  Which is why it's makes sense that many Hong Kongers inevitably will side and stand with Ukraine.   

 

Also, as per a statement by Bleak House Books (a yellow book store previously located in San Po Kong before its owners decided that Hong Kong was no longer a safe place to raise their family) on Twitter (hours before the Russians invaded their neighbor yesterday): "Stand with Ukraine[.]  If you don’t know what to stand on[:] Stand on principle[.]  Don’t wait[.]  If you wait you give hope to all the bad actors out there[.]  Who are lurking, scheming, waiting for the right moment[.]  Today it is Ukraine, tomorrow it will be your country[.]  Don’t wait".

 

Speaking of not waiting: it's not only time that waits for no man but also the Wuhan coronavirus.  And for all of the likes of Carrie Lam talking about Hong Kong being currently being in a war footing against the coronavirus, the Hong Kong government has been waging a battle against Covid in a way that clearly shows it to have been ill prepared as well as ill equipped to deal with this fifth wave.  

 

Thus it is that Covid is clearly running rampant and spreading all over Hong Kong.  And today has been another record breaking day: with today's number of new confirmed cases soaring past the 10,000 mark and the overall number of new cases (which covers both preliminary positive and confirmed cases) being a whopping 21,979!  And if that weren't already bad, throw in the fact that Hong Kong reported 59 Covid deaths (47 new; 12 backlogged) today.  Also, in view of there being 51 people infected with Covid who were in a critical condition and 48 in seriously ill condition as of last night: I hate to say this but it's pretty much guaranteed that there will be more deaths to report tomorrow and a number of days afterwards.

 

Among the sections of Hong Kong that Covid is now raging in: the prisons, where more than 7,200 people are currently detained; among whom are hundreds of political prisoners.  As per an AFP report: "As of Thursday [i.e. yesterday], there were 202 confirmed infections and 135 preliminary positive prisoners within the system — a caseload that has grown by more than 20 times in about a week."  And in the words of prisons official: "It is anticipated that more cases of infection will be found in the coming week". 

 

So much for the measures the government sought to take to stop Covid from enterting the system; including ones that involved the suspension of visits by family and friends of prisoners that were just one more pleasure and contact with the outside world denied to prisoners (who, lest we forget, include the likes of Jimmy Lai, Joshua Wong, Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan, Claudia Mo, Gwyneth Ho, Jimmy Sham and so many more; many of whom haven't even been convicted of crimes but already behind bars for many months after being denied bail after being arrested and charged with National Security Law crimes).  

On a "thank goodness for small mercies" note: Fernando Cheung is no longer among Hong Kong's political prisoners as the pro-democrat was released from prison yesterday morning.  Compared to so many of his political allies and ex-Legislative Council colleagues (like, say, Claudia Mo and also Wu Chi-wai, Lam Cheuk-ting and Jeremy Tam), Cheung's three weeks behind bars (for contempt in connection with a protest he staged with fellow democrats in the Legislative Council chamber in May 2020) can seem like a breeze.

But on his release from jail, the 65 year old told reporters that "his life behind bars was “tough,” as he was separated from his family".  Still, rather than put the focus on himself, "Cheung called on the authorities to make arrangements for inmates who saw their time in custody being extended after the Covid-19 pandemic delayed their court appearances. He also urged people not to forget his “friends” and other Hongkongers who are still in detention."  And I, for one, would like to echo and do what I can to amplify his call.

Enjoying a socially distanced hike without a mask for what may be the last time in a long while! (Photo-essay)

There was much to be angry about in Hong Kong again yesterday.  I don't think I need to go into details as more than one blogger out there has already done so (see here and here for examples).  And there's much to be angry about some more in Hong Kong today (see here, here, here and here, among others).  Oh, and of course Hong Kong had another day of record new Covid cases -- up to 8,674 today, and 24 more deaths.

 

On the (literally) brighter side: the sun came out and it stopped raining for the first time in days today.  So I went off for another hike in Tai Tam Country Park.  And like with last week's in the same country park (albeit along different sections of trail for the most part), I spotted lots of Chinese New Year Flowers and nine different wild boar on my hike!  

 

And for those who didn't realize: yes, I love hiking in Hong Kong; where I can get away from much of humanity for a few hours as well as get into nature.  So it really does seem very stupid, bordering on irrational and insane, for the Hong Kong government to require that, beginning from midnight tonight, people will need to wear masks while out (hiking) in the country parks; and this especially when people also already are required to socially distance by, among other things, not being in groups larger than two people in public!   

 

Lots of people and buildings in the city below...

 

Out on the hiking trail: far less so!

 

Yes, we're on Hong Kong Island (pop: some 1.2 million); but 

nope, there really aren't that many people at all in the area!

 

Even the sections of the popular Wilson Trail that I was on

this afternoon, it was very easy to socially distance!

 

Honestly, wearing a mask while hiking out here

with no one in sight seems like madness!

 

Some pretty (and still in bloom) Chinese New Year Flowers

to chase the blues away!

 

Speaking of chase: I spotted a young boy and his mother

round a bend surprisingly quickly -- then realized why

when four wild boar appeared a few seconds later! :D
 

One more wild boar pic: BTW, I think they have lovely eyes! :)