A week ago, I posted about the covid-19 situation here in Hong Kong where thousands of people were tested positive right after the Chinese New Year season and the sudden rise of positive cases started in late December. HK's real battle against Covid-19 began as the cases kept rising each day uncontrollably. To control the spreading of the virus, the government reintroduced the strict social distancing protocol, gatherings are limited to two persons only in public places, and dine-ins in restaurants are cut after six in the evening. And those who will disobey the rules will receive a corresponding penalty.
Compulsory testing is one of the protocols that have been imposed to at least protect the citizens against Covid-19 and its new variant Omicron. This photo below was seen on Twitter by HKFP showing long queues for covid-19 testing in different facilities.
Unfortunately, the new restrictions could not successfully bring the situation under control as positive cases even rose higher unexpectedly.
As of the time of writing, the total cases in HK have shown a 55,353 increase in just more than a week from my last update on February 22. This gives a total of 293,730 positive cases and death cases showing 127 increase taking a toll of 1,168 death cases since the pandemic started.
Knowing that Hong Kong is just a very small and densely populated country, the huge number of positive cases is already alarming along with its thousands of cases shown each day despite the tightened social distancing measures and other protocols. And based on the situation, some experts say that cases would even go higher in mid to late March.
###HK Possible Lockdown
To take control of the situation, the government planned to hold a large-scale lockdown in Hong Kong for 9 days which might start after March 17.
What would happen during the lockdown?
During the 9 days lockdown, the 7.4 million residents of HK should conduct antigen tests at home three times within the lockdown period. And those who'll get positive test results will be isolated in either homes or government-run centers if needed.
And just like in other lockdown scenarios in other countries, only one member of the family could go out to buy food. And those who need medical treatment, assigned officials, and frontliners are exempted.
Possible Lockdown Stirred Fears and Panic Buying
After announcing the possible lockdown, albeit unsure, the public fear the lockdown possibilities that stirred panic buying in all supermarkets.
However, the HK Chief Executive Officer, Carrie Lam, advised the public to stay calm and not to believe the circulating uncertain rumors and food supplies would remain normal.
Despite the announcements of the Chief Executive, the fear of the people remained and continued stacking supplies. Some citizens even flew out of HK to mainland China to avoid getting infected by the virus and the chaotic pandemic situation.
Panic Buying Spotted on Wednesday Sale
Wednesday came, the second day of March, and I have witnessed how people went panic buying. Wednesday is the weekly sale of AEON, the biggest supermarket in HK, and people took the opportunity to stack more supplies.
People seemed to forget the strict social distancing protocol as what they only wanted was to stack more supplies in preparation for the possible lockdown. As soon as AEON supermarket opened in the morning, it was flooded and loaded with buyers panicking and seizing all available food and necessary supplies. Queues in all the counters were long and even reached up to the entrance of the supermarket.
As soon as the boxes of food were put out by the staff, people gathered around and frantically seized and emptied the boxes of food. (And I was just standing in front of them taking photos, lol)
Supplies that were seized by the people include rice, eggs, bread, packed biscuits and cookies, canned goods, noodles, vegetables, frozen meat and dumplings, packed tofu, and other processed food.
Different shelves were easily emptied by morning on AEON Wednesday sale.
Meat shops in Kowloon City wet market are still closed since two weeks ago as slaughter workers were tested positive in Covid-19 so it was closed for disinfection and positive patients were isolated. (Information from my Chinese boss) So people opt to buy poultry and seafood, as well as frozen meats, and processed foods. Meanwhile, vegetables and fruit supplies are normal.
Aside from AEON supermarket, other supermarkets that were seized by HK people include ParknShop and Kai Bo Food Supermarket. The Wellcome supermarket also has empty shelves due to panic buying. These mentioned supermarkets are among the biggest supermarkets here in Hong Kong.
People are stacking not only foods, but tissues, kitchen towels, masks, cleaning supplies, and other toiletries as well. Different dispensary shops were crowded too by panic buyers.
The 9 days lockdown is still uncertain and there is no further news about it, but people are already preparing for the possible situation that may arise in case it happens, and that includes stacking supplies ahead of time. And Hong Kong's main goal of city lockdown is to eliminate Covid in the country at all possible costs. So as early as possible, the government wants to control the situation before it gets worse. If this won't stop until the next few months, it's not only positive cases that will surge but also death cases as medical facilities would be overloaded.
Why did the positive cases suddenly surge high in Hong Kong?
I could only see two possible causes here.
First, over the past years that Hong Kong's pandemic situation was under control and has seen only a few positive cases, only those who experienced the Covid symptoms opted to conduct Covid tests, either home testing or in medical centers, and so they were identified as positive Covid patients and added to the list. Others may have experienced symptoms but only performed home isolation and have cured themselves by home remedies and did not inform the medical officials about their situation so they weren't included in Covid positive patients.
Second, when the restrictions were relaxed, people became complacent and comfortably roamed around crowded places in HK, even during Christmas and Chinese New Year seasons. When people started to conduct home antigen testing and identified as positive patients, many others opted to join the compulsory Covid testing as well, with or without symptoms, so more positives in Covid were added to the list.
I am thinking about, what if these people won't do Covid testing like in other countries? Then there'll be lesser positive cases in the list because even those with symptoms of simple cold and cough due to recent cold weather conditions were identified as Covid positive. And those who died who were said to have Covid-19 were among those with further health issues and weak immune systems.
But then Hong Kong people are very keen on this matter and saving their lives, and they tend to follow the majority. Besides, this large-scale lockdown might help control the situation and stop the spread of the virus once all tested positive in Covid will be isolated and cured.
It seems that Hong Kong is going back to when the pandemic started instead of moving forward and getting better. But for the sake of our safety and everyone, and to regain a Covid-free country, we citizens should follow the protocols and whatever the government would impose. We are hoping that this possible lockdown could put the situation under control and bring back a once safe and peaceful Hong Kong.
Thanks for reading.
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