#KwaiChungLockdown #Omicron
Chaotic Mass Testing Stokes Fear of Rampant Virus Spread at Kwai Chung Estate

Thousands of residents at Kwai Chung Housing Estate were forced to undergo immediate and ongoing daily COVID-19 tests at makeshift testing stations, after authorities placed two buildings under a mandatory 5-day lockdown and at least 4 other buildings under overnight lockdown.

Over 10,000 residents live in the 4 buildings locked down for the overnight COVID-19 testing. However, only 4 makeshift testing booths were set up.

There was, however, no arrangement for residents to be tested in batches. This caused overcrowding at lift lobbies and elevators, as many headed out for their tests at the same time. A photo of elevator CCTV showed around a dozen people squeezing into elevators; the photo has since gone viral on social media.

Long, winding queues formed as residents filed patiently into the courtyard for their tests. Residents said that the queue snaked through some narrow passageways, and those returning home after tests had to go back the same way, squeezing past the long queue.

No social distancing measures were employed, residents said, and they feared that this virus testing would instead spread the virus even further.

Source: Whats News Media, #Jan22
https://www.whatsnewsmedia.com/6467/22/06/43/

#FailedState #WuhanPneumonia

#Satire #SurveillanceState
Down with the live-with-COVID believers

Above four-panel-cartoon is created by a popular artist in Hong Kong, Ar To. The cartoonist attempts to bring out real intention behind the COVID-control measures purposefully imposed in the city in the face of Omicron outbreak.

Inscriptions from upper right panel:
"So it's come to this ..."
"We've got to live with the vir-"
"..."
"We've got to live with surveillance!"

Hong Kong is reeling under an outbreak of Omicron infections, recording nearly 7,000 cases in a day on February 20, straining hospitals and testing centers to their limits.

An opinion poll taken last month -- at the beginning of the current outbreak -- shows that nearly two-thirds of citizens are receptive of a "live with the virus" approach similar to other countries such as the UK.

The Hong Kong government, however, had taken this outbreak as an opportunity to tighten gathering restrictions, enforce mandatory use of its controversial #LeaveHomeSafe tracking app, and carry out sudden, community-wide lockdowns and mandatory testing that last for days. As China is growing more concerned with Hong Kong's seeming inability to contain the outbreak, Carrie Lam and her government may be hard pressed into enacting more Orwellian surveillance measures in order to satisfy Beijing's demands for "dynamic zero covid" -- whatever that now means.

image source: Ar To
https://www.facebook.com/100044541035098/posts/513031630191534/

See also;
New York Times: Hong Kong Can’t Live With the Virus. It Can’t Stop It, Either.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/16/world/asia/hong-kong-covid-omicron-wave.html

#Omicron #FailedState #CCP #Authoritarianism

#CCPcontrol #Censorship #Silencing
Furious Chinese Netizens over City Lockdown posts National Anthem "Rise Up" to Protest, and are Promptly Blocked on Weibo

With the widespread of #Omicron in Shanghai, the Chinese government is responding with a tougher stain on the lockdown of the city, leading to public discontent and resistance.

Many Chinese netizens used the first line of the national anthem, "Rise up! Those refuse to be slaves", as a hashtag and posted it on #Weibo to express their anger. This was blocked by Weibo later on, which is ridiculously tantamount to making the national anthem a forbidden word.

It was found later, after searching on Weibo, that the national anthem is still searchable, but the search results would be blanked if the keyword is a hashtag of the national anthem.

This is not the first time China has banned its national anthem. Back in the early days of the #COVID19 outbreak in #Wuhan, when 'whistle blower' Dr. Li Wenliang died, Douban.com banned the lyrics of the same song for "containing radical current affairs or ideology".

Source: Whats News Media; #Apr21
https://www.whatsnewsmedia.com/8796/16/08/45/

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Related article
National Flag Guard – Doctor LI Wenliang was died due to the systematic speech controls, which he believed in and supported
https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/16978?single
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