Category Archives: Hong Kong

Shanghai begins locking down millions as China’s Covid cases surge

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China will shut down city in two stages as it sticks to a ‘zero-Covid’ strategy amid growing outbreaks

Shanghai has begun its phased lockdown as an Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 wave spreads through mainland China’s most significant financial hub, resulting in the highest caseloads in the country since the early days of the pandemic.

The eastern side of the Huangpu River, which divides Shanghai, would be under lockdown between Monday and Friday, officials said, followed by similar restrictions across its western side from 1 April. Massing Covid testing across the city is also under way.

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Hong Kong eases travel rules in apparent shift from zero-Covid policy

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Ban on flights from nine countries lifted for fully vaccinated residents and quarantine reduced to seven days

Hong Kong will lift a ban on flights from nine countries and reduce hotel quarantine alongside a “roadmap” towards eased restrictions that suggest a departure from the territory’s zero-Covid policy, its leader has announced.

From 1 April, fully vaccinated Hong Kong residents who have received a negative PCR test will be allowed to enter on flights from the UK, Australia, Canada, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and the US. Arrivals have to undergo seven days’ hotel quarantine, down from 14 previously.

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China reports first coronavirus deaths in over a year amid omicron surge

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Two deaths reported on Saturday, the first since January 2021, as China continues to pursue ‘zero-Covid’ strategy

China’s national health authorities reported two Coronavirus deaths on Saturday, the first recorded rise in the death toll since January last year, as the country battles an omicron-driven surge.

The deaths, both in north-eastern Jilin province, bring the country’s coronavirus death toll to 4,638.

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Hong Kong demands UK-based rights group shut down website

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‘We will not be silenced,’ says CEO after government accuses Hong Kong Watch of endangering China’s national security

A UK-based rights group has pledged not to remain silent after Hong Kong’s government demanded it shut its website and accused it of endangering China’s national security.

While China heavily restricts the internet on the mainland, Hong Kong does not generally censor the web, allowing residents to access sites and content that might be critical of Beijing.

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Hong Kong protests documentary breaks Taiwan box office record in opening weeks

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Revolution of Our Times looks at the 2019 demonstrations, which some Taiwanese saw as a warning sign about their own future

A film on the pro-democracy protests that rocked Hong Kong in 2019 has broken a box office record in Taiwan for an overseas Chinese-language documentary within the first fortnight of its release.

Revolution of Our Times, directed by Hong Kong film-maker Kiwi Chow and which premiered at the Cannes film festival last year, has grossed around $17m NTD (US$600,000) as of Wednesday, the film’s distributor said.

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China builds new bridge to Hong Kong to rush in workers as Covid cases surge

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The temporary bridge will aid work on a makeshift hospital as the city’s Covid death rate reaches world’s highest per 1m people

A temporary bridge linking Shenzhen and Hong Kong has been erected to help workers and materials from the mainland to enter the city as work began on a Covid-19 makeshift hospital to relieve pressure on the city’s overwhelmed medical system.

Almost 2,000 Chinese contractors from the China State Construction Engineering are in Hong Kong this week to build the makeshift facility near Hong Kong’s border with the mainland, which is expected to provide 1,000 more hospital beds and quarantine rooms for up to 10,000 people.

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Hong Kong shops ration food and drugs to curb panic buying amid Covid lockdown fears

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Government is planning to test entire population for virus but insists it will not impose ‘complete lockdown’

Soaring Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong have led to court services being suspended for a month as the two largest consumer retail chains ration certain items.

The Asian financial hub has recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases for the third consecutive day in what the authorities called a “fifth wave”, overwhelming hospitals and shattering the city’s zero-Covid strategy.

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European countries dominate half of Asian shark fin trade, report reveals

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Despite nearly a third of shark species nearing extinction, Spain supplied 51,000 tonnes of shark fins from 2003-20, says IFAW

European countries are selling so many shark fins to Asia that they dominate nearly half the trade, a study has found.

Shark populations continue to decline, driven by the global shark fin trade. Last year, scientists found a third of sharks and ray species have been overfished to near-extinction, jeopardising the health of entire ocean ecosystems and food security for many countries.

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Hong Kong to allow in doctors from mainland China as Covid cases overwhelm hospitals

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City, which is pursuing a zero-Covid strategy, is registering thousands of cases a day in its worst-ever wave of the virus

Hong Kong’s government has invoked emergency powers to allow doctors and nurses from the Chinese mainland to practise in the financial hub as it struggles to tackle a spiralling coronavirus outbreak.

“The regulation will provide a legal framework for the CPG (central people’s government) to render the necessary emergent support to Hong Kong in a more effective and expeditious manner,” the government said in a statement.

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Hong Kong domestic workers left homeless after being fired for contracting Covid-19

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Dozens of live-in workers have been forced to sleep rough in the Hong Kong winter after bosses refuse to allow them back in the house

Live-in domestic workers in Hong Kong have been left homeless after they were diagnosed with Covid-19 and their employers fired them or refused their return to the residence, support groups have said.

Many of the workers, who are mostly women from Indonesia and the Philippines, were also left without insurance to cover their medical bills.

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Hong Kong to test entire population of 7.5m for Covid in March

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Carrie Lam announces mandatory mass testing as virus surge threatens to overwhelm healthcare system

The entire population of nearly 7.5 million people in Hong Kong will have to undergo mandatory Covid-19 testing in March, the city’s leader has announced, as the territory grapples with its worst outbreak, driven by the Omicron variant.

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said the population would be tested three times in March, and the territory’s testing capacity would be boosted to 1 million a day or more. “Since we have a population of some 7 million people, testing will take about seven days,” she said.

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Hong Kong Covid surge is overwhelming hospitals, says leader

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Construction crews from mainland China will help build isolation units, Carrie Lam said

Hong Kong reported 15 coronavirus deaths and more than 6,000 confirmed cases for a second day in a surge the Chinese territory’s leader says its overwhelming hospitals.

The government announced plans to have construction crews from mainland China build isolation units with 10,000 beds after crowding at hospitals forced patients to wait outdoors in winter cold.

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Greta stands with Sami and Navalny on trial again: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Mexico

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‘No light at the end’: How Hong Kong’s Covid response went so wrong

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A policy of admitting every positive case to hospital means thousands are being added to an already huge backlog every day

The beds pile up outside Hong Kong’s Caritas hospital. In the cold night, elderly patients lie on gurneys covered with blankets and thermal foil sheets. A woman in pink folds her arms against the chill, while another reaches across her bed in an apparent gesture of comfort to a neighbour. Nearby, others crowd into yellow and blue spillover tents lining the car park edges. The hospital staff attend people calling out when they can but they are outnumbered. Wails from patients carry through the air.

There are similar scenes across the city, where 11 public hospitals were operating at or beyond capacity as of Friday. Private hospitals refuse to take Covid patients. Photos supplied to the Guardian show a treatment room inside one hospital earlier this week (88% capacity) with gurneys three deep across the thoroughfare, on a floor strewn with garbage. Bathrooms that no one has had time to clean were soiled with faeces, dirt and discarded biohazard bags.

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Fears of online censorship in Hong Kong as rights group website goes down

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UK-based Hong Kong Watch says outage could be part of wider Beijing crackdown

The website of a UK-based advocacy group appears to have become inaccessible through some networks in Hong Kong, raising fears of mainland-style internet censorship in the Chinese territory.

The group, Hong Kong Watch, which monitors human rights, said it worried the censorship could be a part of a wider crackdown on freedom of speech under Hong Kong’s national security law, which allows the police to ask service providers to “delete” information or “provide assistance” on national security cases.

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Hong Kong turns public housing into Covid quarantine facilities as it battles Omicron surge

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Fears that city struggling with 2,000 coronavirus cases a day could see daily figures reach 30,000

Hong Kong has turned newly built public housing and 10,000 hotel rooms into quarantine accommodation as authorities strive to control an Omicron outbreak that has overwhelmed the city.

Recent days have seen record daily highs of more than 2,000 cases, but experts have warned the outbreak could reach about 30,000 a day. Already hospitals, testing facilities, and isolation centres have been swamped, with local media publishing photos of spillover tents set up in hospital carparks.

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Coronavirus live: UK records 41,648 new cases and 35 Covid-linked deaths; French protest convoy reaches Brussels

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UK cases down 30% on the previous week, with weekly deaths down 27.2%; 500 French vehicles arrive in Brussels to protest against Covid measures

Sweden’s Health Agency recommended on Monday that people aged 80 or above should receive a second booster shot of Covid vaccine, the fourth jab in total, to ward off waning immunity amid the rampant spread of the Omicron variant.

The recommendation also covered all people living in nursing homes or who receive assisted living services at home. The second booster shot should be administered at least four months after the first booster jab, the agency said in a statement.

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Hong Kong fears food supply disruption as Covid hits drivers in worsening outbreak

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The territory imports 90% of its food and supply fears come as it battles its worst outbreak of the pandemic

Hong Kong authorities said supplies of vegetables and chilled poultry to the global financial hub may be temporarily disrupted after some mainland goods vehicle drivers preliminarily tested positive for Covid-19.

Hong Kong imports 90% of its food, with the mainland its most important source, especially for fresh food.

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Johnson receives ‘partygate’ police questionnaire – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

The Novavax Covid vaccine is available for Australians to receive, with the first person in the country getting the jab today.

Health minister Greg Hunt, giving a press conference at a medical centre in Melbourne, said with the new availability of Novavax there were “no excuses for anybody” not to get a Covid jab – alluding to people who had chosen to wait for this vaccine.

There are those that, for their own personal circumstances, have awaited or been unable to take the other vaccines. This is a new choice. It’s a protein vaccine ... a tried and tested vaccine platform.

I have preferred a traditional vaccine to be introduced into myself. I’m not anti-vax, I’m pro-choice, and this was my choice.

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Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam apologises for long Covid testing queues as new restrictions bite

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Apology comes as city enforces new measures including closure of hairdressers and addition of malls to vaccine pass system

Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, has said she is “deeply sorry and anxious” about the lengthy wait for residents to get tested or enter isolation facilities after a record number of new coronavirus cases left authorities scrambling.

Hong Kong’s daily Covid-19 infections nearly doubled to a record 1,161 cases on Wednesday as the global financial hub battles a rapid surge that could pose the biggest test yet of its “dynamic zero” policy.

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