The 14-day community-based screening program for the new coronavirus, promoted by the Hong Kong government, ended Monday night. The Hong Kong government concluded the program on Tuesday, saying that more than US$68 million of public money had been spent, 1.78 million people, or about 25% of the total population of Hong Kong, had participated, and 32 newly diagnosed cases had been identified, of which 20 had been diagnosed at no source. Human infection.
Some pro-democracy legislators have said that the number of people participating in universal testing is far below the government’s expectation of 5 million, describing it as a referendum of no-confidence in the government, and that it is not cost-effective to spend an average of more than US$5 million to find a single confirmed case without symptoms.
The Hong Kong government is promoting a universal community testing program for the new coronavirus (referred to as “universal testing”) to identify “invisible patients” in the community who have no symptoms and to cut off the chain of transmission in the community as soon as possible.
Many experts said before the program began that to achieve the goal should be accompanied by “city closures” or “community quarantine orders”, otherwise the effectiveness will be reduced, but the Hong Kong government said that the reality is that it is difficult to implement the “city closures” or “quarantine orders” of supporting measures.
Over 1.78 million people participated in the community-wide testing
The universal testing program began on September 1 and was free of charge for all Hong Kong citizens, and was extended twice by the Hong Kong government until Monday (September 14), a 14-day period.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, together with the Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Mr. Nicholas Nip, the Secretary for Food and Health, Mr. Sophia Chan, and other relevant officials, held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon (September 15) to conclude the territory-wide testing program.
Describing the universal testing as “unprecedented,” Mrs. Lam thanked the more than 1.78 million people who participated in the sampling, the 6,500 Hong Kong health care workers who assisted in the sampling, and the 579 Chinese health care workers dispatched by China’s National Health Commission (NHC) to assist in the virus testing.
Mr. Nip emphasized that the Hong Kong government has not set a target number of people to be tested, and he claimed that the 1.78 million people who participated in the program “achieved the policy objective”. Nip reiterated that the goal of universal testing is only to find “invisible patients”, to break the chain of transmission in the community, and to understand the situation in the community.
Hong Kong Government Spends $530 Million in Public Funds
Nip concluded that the Hong Kong government spent a total of 530 million Hong Kong dollars (equivalent to more than 68 million U.S. dollars) of public funds on universal testing, of which 370 million yuan (equivalent to about 48 million U.S. dollars) was spent on the salaries of testing center staff, medical staff, and other support staff.
Among the 32 newly diagnosed cases identified in the entire population-based testing program, there were 20 confirmed cases at no source, and the positive rate was 0.002% based on a sample of more than 1.78 million people, which means that only 2 out of 100,000 people were infected, Nip said. Nie Dequan also said that if 1.78 million people participated in the universal testing, each person spent an average of only 300 yuan (US$39) of public money.
Kwok Ka-ki describes no-confidence referendum on government
The number of people who participated in the universal testing was only 1.78 million, or about 25 percent of Hong Kong’s population of more than 7.5 million, far less than the government’s expectation of 5 million people, described as a referendum of no confidence in the government, said Dr. Kwok Ka-ki, a lawmaker from the Civic Party who is also a doctor, in an interview with Voice of America.
If we have some interesting metaphors, there are some people who take it as a referendum, that is, a referendum on the government, but obviously the support for the referendum is quite low, that is, around 20 percent. “
The majority of Hong Kong citizens cast a vote of no confidence in universal testing and refused to participate in it, which may be related to the plan of having a Chinese organization such as China University Gene to be in charge of virus testing, which makes Hong Kong people worry about the risk of “sending DNA to China”, and the Hong Kong government has not been able to allay the concerns of the public.
In the past, it was deep sputum, but now it is taken in the mouth and nasal cavity, will it be more uncomfortable? Or even now people are very worried about, for example, the whereabouts of the DNA data, and so on, all these seem to be not fully answered. Here.”
Pro-establishment supporters were not overwhelmingly enthusiastic either.
He believes that even the pro-establishment supporters are not enthusiastic about participating in the universal testing, which reflects their distrust of the Hong Kong government and dissatisfaction with the anti-epidemic measures.
This is not only related to politics, but also the face of the epidemic, the way to deal with it, the ability to govern, the lack of economic motivation, and the fact that if we are all concerned about the epidemic, we will not be able to take action. Note, because the government has caused a lot of disputes, or incidents, Hong Kong’s long-term economic development can be said to be cloudy, economic, health, employment, and even political are all, to put it bluntly, that is, ‘black pigs’, or handed a blank sheet, you want the public to trust the government I think it’s hard to force people.”
About $5 million to find a no-symptom diagnosed case
He believes that only Carrie Lam and Nikita Nip need to thank Beijing because the test was not very effective. Strictly speaking, of the 32 confirmed cases, only 13 had no symptoms.
The Hong Kong government spent a total of 530 million Hong Kong dollars in public funds, equivalent to more than 68 million U.S. dollars, and an average of more than 5 million U.S. dollars to find one confirmed case without symptoms, which is not cost-effective.
Therefore, I think Lin Zheng, Nie Dequan, or many other senior officials whose performance was very poor and not very good should be thanked to the central government,” Guo Jiaqi said. Their problem, because he wants to thank why they are doing so poorly, all ‘rice buckets’ (wimps) still stay, is because the (Beijing) central government supports them, so they (Hong Kong senior officials) thank it (Beijing) only a few of their own people, or Lin Zheng itself, nothing to do with the Hong Kong people.”
Criticism of creating a sensational and anti-intellectual image of Chinese support personnel
China’s National Health Commission sent 579 medical staff to assist in virus testing, and they were interviewed by the media, saying that in order to speed up testing, they worked in three shifts of eight hours each day, and even had to wear adult diapers to reduce the time needed to go to the bathroom and remove protective clothing in the middle of the day.
In order to speed up the testing process, each person has to work in 3 shifts daily for 8 hours non-stop, and even wear adult diapers to reduce the amount of time spent in the toilet and in protective clothing.
If you want to create an image of China’s anti-epidemic hero, it may be offensive to Hong Kong people, or even counterproductive,” Guo said. That is to say, do we have to, for example, wear diapers to work in order to show that we are trying our best? The demands are far, far away, so I find it hard to accept.”
Worried that Hong Kong government is using the results of universal testing to open the border
Many Hong Kong government anti-epidemic experts have said that the first to third waves of the new coronary pneumonia outbreak in Hong Kong since the end of January were caused by imported cases, calling for universal testing, the Hong Kong government should do a better job of border control, especially pay attention to the exemption of quarantine for seafarers and crew members entering the territory.
The government, pushed by the pro-establishment camp, may do the opposite, and will promote a “health code” to exempt Hong Kong people from quarantine when they enter and exit Guangdong and Macau after the universal testing is completed.
The government should not consider opening the borders until the majority of citizens have received an effective vaccine against new coronary pneumonia, otherwise it could lead to a fourth or fifth wave of the epidemic.
The most worrisome thing is that they (the Hong Kong government) will take this opportunity to give up on guarding the border, because once they give up on guarding the border, Hong Kong is safe to defend, that is, all those we suffered earlier, including the death of more than 100 people, many of them elderly, the entire city food, that is, the catering industry is almost going out of business, all retail industries have suffered so much, points. That is to say, as long as the government acts recklessly, without sufficient assistance from the border gates, or the border gates, and then opens the border, it will only plunge Hong Kong into another misery, another fourth or fifth wave (epidemic), so no one can imagine, so I don’t want the government to be reckless, or to use this so-called (universal) test result to exaggerate how it (the government) is going to go. Open the gates, and in the end it’s all Hong Kong people who get hurt and suffer.”
HA Staff Front says not too many participants
In an interview with the Voice of America, Mr. C.Y. Lo, Vice Chairman of the HA Employee’s Front, who earlier called for Hong Kong people to boycott the universal testing, said that 1.78 million people eventually participated in the universal testing was not too many, because they understood that some Chinese companies required their employees to be tested, and some citizens were misled into believing that they could cross the border to mainland China more conveniently after being tested, which also involved the public’s distrust of the Hong Kong government and Chinese testing agencies.
I know some people who want to do it because they may want to cross the border (to mainland China), but they don’t know that if they get a negative result once, the validity period may not be extended until they can cross the border, so some people do it. But it’s hard to interpret it as a pure distrust of the government, but this number is also a problem, that is to say, the government will have some distrust factors, including some people worried about the DNA delivery and so on, although some anecdotal evidence, but this is also really, indeed distrust of the government some results.
Call for attention to China’s health care mental health
The Chinese support staff said that they had to wear diapers for eight hours, and Luo Zhuo-yao, who is a nurse and works in the isolation of new coronary pneumonia patients, said that in fact, Hong Kong’s health care workers have always had to work long hours, and in the past, they had to work long hours during the peak of the flu, but never had to wear diapers, he believes that the mental health of the Chinese mainland health care workers need to be concerned.
He said: “The issue of the mental health of health care workers in mainland China is something we should pay attention to. The truth can’t be told, and lies can’t be told’, so they don’t talk, that is, many of them may have some symptoms of depression, and then I want to note that if the long-term war against (epidemic) in terms of, that is, the epidemic may end up going to the first one or two quarters of next year before there is a vaccine, in fact, it is impossible to go a long time without eating, drinking water, and do not go to the toilet, and do not pay attention to occupational safety. I think the hospitals in Hong Kong will go inside to emphasize, for example, the Hospital Authority may run some workshops, if he (health care workers) feel mentally uncomfortable, in fact, there are some mechanisms to help him.”
The Hong Kong government has repeatedly said that the “Hong Kong Health Code” (HKHC) is ready and will be launched once the epidemic in Hong Kong has stabilized. Pro-establishment activists have also demanded that only citizens with health codes be allowed to enter restaurants, shopping malls, or public places. Recently, some pro-government scholars have even suggested that the health code should be linked to universal testing, so that those who have undergone universal testing are considered good citizens and can be given priority for vaccination in the future; if the government distributes money to all citizens, it will be distributed to those who have undergone universal testing first.
The Democratic Party opposes the implementation of the “Hong Kong Health Codes”.
Democrat legislator Bianca Wong, along with a number of district legislators, went to the government headquarters on Tuesday to petition against the establishment of the Hong Kong Health Care Code, chanting slogans that demanded, among other things, the re-run of the Legislative Council election.
Huang Biyun believes that once the Hong Kong Health Code is established, the government can force citizens to download the program on their cell phones at any time, and citizens’ personal information, including name, phone number, ID number, health condition, whereabouts, and whether they have been vaccinated against Wuhan pneumonia in the future, will all be monitored by the government, and citizens’ privacy will be invisible, even on par with that of mainland China, which will become the basis of social rating standards and restrict citizens’ freedom.
Huang said: “People are worried that the Hong Kong Health Code will gradually become the same as the one in mainland China, and the health code in mainland China, if it is called the ‘Guangdong Health Code’ in Guangdong, will become the same as the one in different cities in mainland China. Some of the health codes are slowly becoming part of the social credit system, and if citizens do not download some official programs, it will be difficult for them to live, they will be excluded, and they will not be able to travel. Even if people are forced to download, the system will still score people’s daily life behaviors, including whether they have regular genetic testing for viruses and whether they have been vaccinated.
Lam Cheng denies Hong Kong people’s distrust of government
The Chief Executive Mrs. Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor attended the Executive Council meeting on Tuesday morning before meeting reporters, still said that the universal testing has achieved the expected results, she described the 1.78 million people voluntarily to be tested “is a good result”.
The Hong Kong government has been criticized for only being able to identify 32 confirmed cases of infection under the universal testing program, which is not cost-effective, Mrs. Lam said she was initially concerned that the program would find many confirmed cases, but the small number now means that the epidemic in Hong Kong is not serious and that there is room for relaxation of preventive measures. She added that the Hong Kong government’s original two goals were to identify the hidden carriers and to make the government and the community more aware of the infected situation in Hong Kong.
The Department of Health (DH) announced that four confirmed cases were recorded on Tuesday, all of which were imported cases, which is the smallest number of cases since the third wave of the epidemic and the first time since the third wave of the epidemic that there are no locally infected cases, and DH did not hold a regular press conference on the epidemic for the first time since July 7.
No locally confirmed cases in Hong Kong for the first time in 2.5 months
A total of 4,976 new cases of coronary pneumonia were reported in Hong Kong. On Tuesday evening, the Hospital Authority (HA) announced the death of a 69-year-old male patient (Case No. 2968) at Tuen Mun Hospital, bringing the total number of deaths to 102, including 94 patients who died in the third wave of the epidemic.
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