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Tag: coronavirus outbreak

  • Hong Kong’s next leader to be known on May 8

    Hong Kong’s next leader to be known on May 8

    The election of Hong Kong’s next leader has been postponed until May 8, following a worsening coronavirus outbreak with thousands of new infections daily.

    Disclosing this on Friday, Hong Kong leader, Carrie Lam, said the election will be delayed six weeks from March 27 because holding the polls as originally scheduled would pose “public health risks” even if a committee of only 1,462 people is involved.

    Hong Kong’s leader is elected by a committee made up of legislators, representatives of various industries and professions, and pro-Beijing representatives such as Hong Kong deputies to the Chinese national parliament.

    Several candidates including film producer Checkley Sin and Titus Wu, a former member of Hong Kong’s largest pro-establishment political party, have confirmed their intention to run. It is not clear if Lam will run for reelection.

    Lam also said there were plans to test the entire city of Hong Kong for COVID-19, but denied that it would be put under a strict lockdown even as the city pursues a “zero COVID” approach.

    “Mandatory testing and a complete city lockdown may not need to go hand in hand. It depends on the actual situation,” she said. “In our case, having examined the unique situation in Hong Kong, we’ll probably just go for universal testing of everyone, but testing more times.”

    She cited as an example Macao, which has tested its entire population twice for the virus.

    Health authorities said Thursday that the city’s hospitals were at 90% capacity and that its isolation facilities were full. Hong Kong’s daily new cases exceeded 2,000 for the first time on Monday. On Friday, over 3,600 new local infections were reported.

    Hong Kong has aligned itself with mainland China’s strict “zero-COVID” policy that involves quarantining incoming travelers, total lockdowns, extensive contact tracing and mass testing of millions of people.

    Lam has stuck to the same strategy despite the city’s greater population density, higher incomes and more service-oriented economy than in mainland China. Last week, the entire upscale Discovery Bay neighborhood in Hong Kong was ordered to undergo testing after authorities found traces of the virus in its sewage.

  • Just in: Coronavirus outbreak now a pandemic – WHO

    Just in: Coronavirus outbreak now a pandemic – WHO

    The World Health Organisation, WHO, has declared Coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

    The novel coronavirus outbreak is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday.

    “Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO’s assessment of the threat posed by this coronavirus. It doesn’t change what WHO is doing, and it doesn’t change what countries should do,” he added.

    According to CNN, The specific criteria for a pandemic are not universally defined, but there are three general criteria: a virus that can cause illness or death; sustained person-to-person transmission of that virus; and evidence of spread throughout the world.

    The novel coronavirus has infected more than 115,800 people, including at least 1,000 in the US and killed over 4,200 worldwide, according to CNN’s tally.

    China’s National Health Commission has confirmed the virus, which causes a disease known as Covid-19, can be transmitted from person to person through “droplet transmission” — where a virus is passed on due to an infected person sneezing or coughing — as well as by direct contact.

    In mainland China, more than 80,700 cases of the virus and over 3,100 deaths have been recorded — the vast majority in Hubei province, ground zero for the outbreak.

    There are more than 35,000 confirmed cases of the virus in over 100 countries and territories outside mainland China. At least 1,120 people have died outside of mainland China from the virus.