Hong Kong’s new masks

CHINA-VIRUS-HEALTH A woman purchase face masks in Hong Kong | AP

On January 26, Hong Kong pro-democracy leader Joshua Wong from the Demosisto party sent out a grim tweet: “A few months ago, Hongkongers were talking about which mask best guards us from teargas... After 7 months, we are still discussing the mask, but now about which one can guard us against a new pneumonia originating from Wuhan.”

The novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak has further fanned the protest fires in Hong Kong. Kwun Tong district councillor Kinda Li held the Chinese government responsible, even as eight people were held on the mainland on January 23 for sharing information on 2019-nCoV on the internet. Li alleged that people in China were told that the situation was preventable and controllable. “People have unreasonable trust in the government,” he said, “and most of them started wearing masks only in the last few days.”

Li said he did not see the Hong Kong government doing anything to prevent the spread of the virus or control prices of medical masks. “Some shops are selling 50 masks for HK $598 (around Rs5,500),” he said. “There is no policy to distribute masks, especially to the elderly who might not be watching television and hence may not be aware of the outbreak.”

Citizens like Li said that limiting cross-border travel was not enough. The handling of the outbreak has angered even those who were supporting the police during the pro-democracy protests. Hong Kong resident Chan Tung Man said that the government has been slack in preventing the virus from entering Hong Kong. “The government announced (on January 27) that public hospitals would provide free treatment to patients suspected of having the Wuhan pneumonia,” she said. “But once it realised this would make more people flee to Hong Kong and because of public anger, the government announced that they would treat only Hong Kong citizens free of charge.”