#15,206
The United States, Canada, and much of Europe have now been under various degrees of pandemic lockdown for anywhere from 5 to 7 weeks, and the the strain is showing. Between the incredible economic damage, escalating cabin fever, and the end of winter weather, there are increasing calls for governments to relax restrictions.
Whether, and how, that can be done successfully - without reigniting community transmission of COVID-19 - is the $64 question.Hong Kong - which shares a land border with China - was one of the first regions outside of the Mainland to be threatened by COVID-19 (then called Novel Coronavirus), and adopted stringent social distancing measures early, and have been living under them now for more than 12 weeks.
They closed schools on January 25th - at a time when HK had recorded fewer than 40 cases - and three days later issued additional Epidemic Measures: Curbing Travel From Mainland - Closing Public Places - Work From Home Orders.For the first couple of months HK residents followed the social distancing guidelines closely, but over time they became lax, resulting in a sudden spike in new cases a little over a month ago (see Hong Kong, Taiwan & Singapore: COVID-19 Cases Still Low, But Rising).
In response Hong Kong authorities doubled down on their social distancing enforcement (see Chief Executive: Immediate prosecution for quarantine order), and extended their lockdown by another 30 days.This extension appears to have worked, as Hong Kong hasn't seen the same level of rise in cases that Singapore (20-fold) and Japan (10-fold) have reported over the past month, although their case counts have more than tripled (n=1,030).
Despite this measured success, Hong Kong officials have decided to extend most of their socials distancing measures again - this time by just two weeks - into May.While they are relaxing the occupancy rules for sit-down restaurants (as long as 1.5 meter social distancing between tables can be maintained), local officials are obviously still loath to relax measures too quickly.
Hong Kong - like dozens of other countries around the globe - continues to look for an acceptable exit strategy from their pandemic lockdown. But right now, no one knows what that will look like.
Regulations restricting social measures extended to May 7
April 21, 2020
The Secretary for Food and Health Chen Zhaoshi said that in order to guard against the reversal of the epidemic in Hong Kong, measures such as restricting the operation of restaurants, entertainment venues, and prohibiting crowds were extended for 14 days, and the restriction that the number of customers in catering premises should not exceed half of the seats was revoked.
When meeting with the media this morning, Chen Zhaoshi said that the global epidemic situation is still grim. There have been more than 2.2 million local confirmed cases so far, and the situation is very repeated. In order to guard against the reversal of the epidemic in Hong Kong, the authorities must remain vigilant so as to avoid losing ground.
She announced that, under the "Regulation and Control of Disease Prevention (prohibition of group gathering)" "Prevention and Control of Disease (regulations and instructions) (business and premises) Regulations" and measures the continuation of two weeks, until May 7 .
For the cancellation request that the number of customers in the catering premises should not exceed half of the original seats, Chen Zhaoshi said that the minimum distance of 1.5 meters or an effective partition is the most important. According to this requirement, the number of guests in general restaurants has been reduced accordingly; the authorities will closely monitor Happening.
In addition, the catering business needs to continue to implement a maximum of four people per table to sit together, measuring the temperature of the guests, providing disinfectant hand sanitizer, closing the bar and other requirements.
As for the 11 listed spaces such as game consoles, fitness rooms, and theaters, the authorities requested that the premises remain closed.
Regarding the meeting place, Karaoke and Mahjong Tianjiu activities must continue to be suspended; in public places, groups of more than four people continue to be banned.
Chen Zhaoshi said that since the restrictions on the restaurant premises were implemented, as of yesterday, various law enforcement agencies conducted more than 55,000 inspections, issued more than 2,500 persuasion, and made 34 prosecutions. In response to the instruction to close the listed premises, the law enforcement department conducted 6,100 inspections, issued 49 advisories and made a prosecution.
In terms of group gathering, law enforcement agencies conducted more than 40,000 inspections during the same period, issued 6,294 persuasion, 131 fixed penalty tickets, and filed three prosecutions.
Although the local epidemic was slightly alleviated, Chen Zhaoshi urged the public not to relax, to maintain personal and environmental hygiene, and to reduce social contact to cut off the spread of the virus in the community.
