[ad_1]
Hong Kong and Macau have lately launched new pandemic measures to rein in a recent COVID wave by extending China’s controversial “zero COVID” coverage within the cities.
Macau imposed a citywide lockdown on July 11 and put over 20,000 residents underneath necessary quarantine. Casinos and different companies within the metropolis have suspended their operations, whereas residents usually are not allowed to go away their houses other than finishing up important actions like grocery procuring.
On July 16, authorities in Macau introduced the lockdown extension till July 22.
Whereas greater than 90% of the town’s inhabitants has been absolutely vaccinated, authorities nonetheless determined to impose a strict lockdown to include COVID’s extremely transmissible omicron variant.
Macau, a particular administrative area of the Individuals’s Republic of China, has constructed makeshift hospitals. Greater than 500 medical personnel from China have arrived within the metropolis to help well being officers to include the variety of infections.
Digital wristbands and well being codes
In Hong Kong, authorities have launched digital wristbands and well being codes to include the omicron unfold. On Monday, Hong Kong reported 3,436 new COVID instances, with well being officers describing the rising variety of hospitalized sufferers as “worrying.”
The wristbands are necessary for people who find themselves quarantined at residence after testing constructive for COVID-19. Hong Kong’s well being secretary, Chung-Mau Lo, mentioned the measure will be certain that residence isolation is executed extra exactly.
Based on authorities, folks in residence isolation should activate the wristband in the beginning of their quarantine. Through the isolation interval, the app will analyze communication alerts of their neighborhood. Any change within the alerts that immediate officers to imagine somebody could have left their isolation place could lead to a warning or an arrest.
Along with the wristband, authorities are additionally considering introducing a well being code system just like the one that’s applied in China. The goal is to limit the motion of people that have been contaminated by COVID and people arriving from abroad. Based on the town’s well being secretary, the system would require real-name registration, and anybody who exams constructive would obtain a purple code as a option to determine them.
How efficient are these measures?
Whereas authorities insist the brand new measures will guarantee quarantine compliance and curb the unfold of the pandemic, some consultants in Hong Kong imagine these measures may have minimal impact on lowering transmission.
“There’s a potential that [the wristband] will barely scale back transmissions, however I do not suppose it’ll have a huge effect,” Ben Cowling, a professor of epidemiology on the College of Hong Kong’s College of Public Well being, advised DW.
The timing of when the wristband have to be worn is unclear, main Cowling to recommend that if contaminated people solely start to put on them three days after contracting COVID, the virus could have already got been transmitted to different folks.
“What we perceive of COVID is that almost all of transmission happens from contaminated folks across the time their signs start to indicate and across the time they first check constructive,” he mentioned. “If the wristband comes extra rapidly, it may have a small affect, however to what extent does that have an effect on transmission, I do not know.
“For the well being code, we must see the way it’s applied, as a result of I believe we’re nonetheless ready for some particulars,” he added.
Concern over knowledge privateness and surveillance
Different analysts have expressed concern in regards to the well being code’s privateness subject. “If they’re implementing a well being code, they must gather extra private knowledge than what they’re accumulating proper now with the LeaveHomeSafe app,” mentioned Chung-Ching Kwong, the Hong Kong marketing campaign coordinator for the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.
“There are already many controversies round safety and encryption in relation to the LeaveHomeSafe app, so it is unconvincing that they may be capable of step up their safety sport when they’re rising the quantity of private knowledge that they plan to gather,” she advised DW.
Other than knowledge privateness issues, Kwong mentioned there’s a chance that the well being code may grow to be a instrument for authorities to conduct surveillance or censorship, citing examples from China’s Henan province the place a whole lot of financial institution depositors had been unable to hitch a deliberate protest after their well being codes turned purple.
“Would this additionally occur in Hong Kong? There is no such thing as a manner Hong Kongers can discover that out and ensure this may not occur right here,” she added.
Will Hong Kong reopen to the world?
Though Hong Kong authorities have talked about the potential of regularly stress-free strict border controls, they haven’t given a particular timeframe.
Earlier this month, Hong Kong’s Well being Secretary Chung-Mau Lo mentioned in an interview with the South China Morning Put up that the town may probably enable quarantine-free arrivals by November, however solely underneath sure circumstances.
Cowling mentioned the new strict measures usually are not in step with these statements, and Kwong is of the view that the Hong Kong authorities is “doing precisely what Beijing needs them to do.”
“The present [COVID] coverage in Hong Kong is extra of a political consideration to exhibit how loyal they’re to Beijing in relation to coping with the pandemic,” she mentioned. “Up to now, Hong Kong officers nonetheless had their very own issues and agenda, however proper now they’re doing what Beijing needs them to do.”
Edited by: Shamil Shams
[ad_2]
Source link
