Health authorities in Hong Kong announced Tuesday (Oct. 6) that the social distance rule, which expired on Oct. 8, will be extended by one week to 15 days in light of the recent epidemic. This includes the continuation of the four-person “restriction on gathering” and “masking” orders, as well as regulatory restrictions on food and beverage establishments.
The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Hong Kong Department of Health announced Tuesday that there were eight new confirmed cases in Hong Kong, bringing the total number of cases in Hong Kong to 5,133. Three of the new cases are imported cases from Germany, Russia and the Philippines, while five new cases are local infections.
The Director of Infectious Diseases Division of the Centre for Health Protection, Department of Health, Hong Kong, Mr. Chuk-kwan Cheung, said that the source of the three local infections is not yet known, which is not a good sign, and it is hoped that the situation will not worsen, but it is impossible to know whether the epidemic is on the rise again.
The Secretary for Food and Health, Mr. Sophia Chan, said at a press conference on Tuesday that Hong Kong continues to have cases of infections of unknown origin and there is an invisible chain of transmission in the community. He said that if citizens do not strictly follow regulatory measures and maintain social distance, large-scale community infections will be imminent and a fourth wave of the epidemic could appear early. If another outbreak occurs in the community, the government will have no choice but to significantly tighten epidemic prevention measures.
The Hong Kong government has implemented a “Crowd Restriction Order” since March 29 to prevent a new coronavirus outbreak, limiting the number of people gathering in public places to no more than four. In addition, six requirements for restaurants and other measures were implemented on March 28.
Since then, as the epidemic has subsided or become more serious, the Hong Kong government has also relaxed the restriction, allowing, for example, no more than 50 people to gather outdoors.
However, the restriction has also drawn criticism from critics. They argue that the restriction has an obvious political agenda. The Hong Kong police can use the order to issue a notice of objection to a Hong Kong pro-democracy protestor who has applied to march, and they can arrest people at will for violating the order. The latest example of this is the arrest of at least 86 Hong Kong people on October 1, who the Hong Kong police say violated the anti-neoconcentration order and took to the streets.
Before October 1, the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), which has repeatedly sponsored anti-sent-away demonstrations involving more than a million people, applied to organize a march on the 11th day of the 11th month to demand the release of 12 Hong Kong people detained in China and to reiterate the five demands of the anti-sent-away campaign. The police issued a notice of opposition, citing the order to restrict gathering.
The government’s decision to allow the government to use a “zero tolerance” approach to the issue is a step forward.
In addition, Mr. Chan said that he will continue to push forward the work on health codes and other travel bubbles with the mainland, but he stressed that the prerequisite for the introduction of the relevant restart of cross-border activities is the stability of the epidemic.
Tourism bubbles are countries that are under epidemic control linked together to form “bubbles”, and within the bubbles they are open to travel with each other in a limited way, and travelers within the bubbles do not need to be quarantined, but still restrict the entry of travelers from countries outside the bubbles.
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