Hospital Authority criticised of providing substandard masks, disregarding safety of medical staff

In the face of Coronavirus outbreak, Hospital Authority(HA) was unable to provide medical staff with protective items meeting WHO recommendation specialised for WARS.

From the graph above, it is shown that masks provided by HA only meet the standard of ASTM Level 1.

Note:
- BFE (Bacterial Filtration Efficiency) for 3 micron block pollen, flying maggot
- PFE (Particle Filtration Efficiency) for 0.1 micron blocks viruses such as influenza and SARS
- VFE (Virus Filtration Efficiency) for 0.1 to 5 microns

ASTM F2100-11 divides mask materials into 3 levels: first level protection (BFE), second level protection (PFE), and third level protection (VFE)

Source: The Hong Kong General Union of Physiotherapists
Link #Jan30 #WuhanPneumonia

How arrogant and egocentric does one have to be to mock the medical workers in midst of this life-threatening disease? Not to mention this is all because of your inaction to tackle the problem at its root.
#CarrieLam #WuhanPneumonia

Medical Staff Pledged to Go on a Strike, Urging Government to Shut down Hong Kong-China Borders

Hospital Authority Employees Alliance (HAEA) held a press conference today (January 31) responding to the preventive measures against Wuhan Pneumonia announced by the Government. HAEA stated that around 6,500 medical staff have pledged to go on a strike next week. Chairman Yu Wai-ming reiterated that "border shutdown" is the most suitable way to curb the epidemic.

Source: Stand News #Jan31
#GlobalOutbreak #WuhanPneumonia #BorderShutdown

#Newspaper

About 200 PRC students of the University of Hong Kong are sent to hotels for quarantine, some of them do not strictly comply with the guidelines: Student accommodation staff from the HKU

Editorial note: PRC students’ non-compliance with quarantine guidelines not only increases the transmission of virus at community level, but it also reveals the deficiency of the current quarantine arrangement - nobody ensures actual isolation from the rest of the community.
Hotels are being abused as luxury free holidays. Hotel’s lack of authority and transparency to disclose whether they have high-risk visitors staying at the premises put other visitors at risk. Noted that a Wuhan couple stayed at W-hotel subsequently confirmed as coronavirus infected had transmitted the virus to people they had directed contacts as well as increasing other people who had contacts with them at two other hotels where they had been visited.

(5 Feb) The coronavirus epidemic continues to spread. HKU indicted some days ago that they arranged PRC students who returned to Hong Kong to stay at hotels for “self-quarantine.” However, some students did not strictly comply with the quarantine guidelines and “went around everywhere.”

The student dorms staff pointed out that all students were required to have their body temperature measured at the time of check-in. Staff asked the students which parts of PRC did they come from. They were then centralised for sending to many hotels, including L’Hotel Island South and other hotels in Yau Ma Tei and Kwun Tong, as well as other districts. HKU distributes body temperature measurement sheets to the students. Hotel staff is responsible for recording their body temperature.

The student dorms staff stated that since the coronavirus response plan began in the end of last month, at least 200 students had been sent to different hotels for “self-quarantine”. However, some of them did not strictly follow the quarantine guidelines. “They went around everywhere. Some went to work. Some even invited their friends to play at the hotels.” The staff said relevant students would be disciplined, including the issuance of warning letters and be expelled from dorm.

Ming Pao journalists attempted to enquire L’hotel about this but the hotel group refused to disclose whether HKU had arranged PRC students to stay at their hotel at Southern District. The hotel group only vaguely replied to media’s enquiry that they have ‘visitors’ from Mainland staying at the hotels who were required by the government to quarantine for 14 days. These people are not from Wuhan or other places in Hubei Province.

Source: Ming Pao (05-Feb)
https://bit.ly/39mmGCR

#Coronavirus #WuhanPneumonia #HKU #PRCStudent #Quarantined

Why the new coronavirus will hit the world economy harder than SARS

- Qualcomm’s exposure in 2003 was limited to $310 million in sales of chips and telecom products to China. That’s 48% of the San Diego firm’s total revenue, reflecting China’s spectacular rise as a global manufacturing power.

- China’s economy today is 8½ times larger than it was in 2003. Trade with the U.S. is nearly four times bigger.

- China’s large and growing middle class has made the country the biggest source of travelers and a voracious buyer of luxury brands.

- China today is the largest market for cars, cellphones, computers and many other goods. As Chinese consumers cut back, U.S. corporate profits could take a dive, which could hammer stocks and in turn weaken consumer spending.

- But global crude prices have sunk in recent days amid China’s expected pullback in oil demand, prompting Saudi Arabia to push for production cuts. Lower oil prices could weaken drilling activity and investments in the United States.

Full Article: LA Times (04-Feb)
https://lat.ms/2OYND7F

Further reading:
Coronavirus/China stocks: supply chain reaction
https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/17342

#Economy #WuhanPneumonia

SARS Stung the Global Economy. The Coronavirus Is a Greater Menace.
In the nearly 20 years since SARS, China’s importance in the global economy has grown exponentially.

(3 Feb) In 2002, when SARS emerged China’s factories were mostly churning out low-cost goods like T-shirts and sneakers for customers around the world. Seventeen years later, WARS is spreading rapidly through China, but China has evolved into a principal element of the global economy, making the epidemic a substantially more potent threat to fortunes.

//International companies that rely on Chinese factories to make their products and depend on Chinese consumers for sales are already warning of costly problems.

Full Article: New York Times
https://nyti.ms/31Zv9cz

#Economy #WuhanPneumonia

#EditorialColumn #Feb22 #WuhanPneumonia
COVID-19: The Spectre That Haunts China

…While the world is discussing whether the statistics released by PRC's health authorities and WHO's stance are in favour of China, Xi Jinping gave a rather clear answer in his political order that no anti-epidemic measures should put pressure on the PRC's economic workings…

Read Full Article:
https://publielectoral.lat/guardiansofhongkong/17663

#Newspaper

China, Global Oil Markets and Coronavirus Outbreak

The coronavirus had a severe impact on the travel industry, air travel and the oil, gas and copper markets, as the outbreak continues spreading, its effect is bound to increase.

According to Reuters, a source from the oil industry revealed that the sales of jet fuel in China has dropped by a quarter in the last week of January.

Meanwhile, the slowdown in China’s industrial activity and the shutdown of factories is also causing the worst shock to oil demand since the financial crisis of 2008-2009, according to Goldman Sachs.

Chinese refiners—from Asia's biggest refiner, Sinopec, to the independent refiners in Shandong—are cutting refinery runs, while commodity trading houses and oil majors are scrambling to find spot buyers for crude oil outside China.

Natural Gas Intel reported thst U.S. LNG plants might be forced to shut down if the price trend continues as it would make their product harder to sell in its top markets: Europe and Asia, mainly China; however, China, for its part, is still enforcing 25-percent tariffs on U.S. LNG imports.

On Feb 6, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the country’s largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), has declared force majeure, meaning it won’t take delivery of some LNG cargoes.

According to Fortune, China is even attempting to sell millions of barrels of West African crude it had already purchased. By Monday, copper had seen a 12% drop in price.

Economists in Beijing think Q1 growth rates could drop a percentage point or more. International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement after the G20 meeting on Feb 24: "The COVID-19 virus -- a global health emergency -- has disrupted economic activity in China and could put the recovery at risk."

Source: Reuters; Bloomberg; AFP; Fortune; oilprice.com
https://is.gd/Pq6yfa
https://is.gd/vDVb6t
https://is.gd/6eWFUV
https://is.gd/GTXTOU
https://is.gd/2rLwcp

#Economy #WuhanPneumonia

#WuhanPneumonia #Mosque
Kowloon Mosque Closed Immediately After a Visitor from Dubai Has Tested Positive for Wuhan Pneumonia

Source: Apple Daily #Mar17
http://bit.ly/38XBHtY

#CensorshipKills #GlobalOutbreak
Hong Kong Experts: Wuhan Coronavirus originated from China is an "outcome of Chinese bad habits";
Many Countries Unprepared Due to WHO's Slow Response

The naming of the novel coronavirus has stirred up disputes, as China opposed the insertion of "Wuhan" despite that it is the origin of the virus.

Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, a SARS expert and microbiologist at the University of Hong Kong, and honorary assistant professor, Lung chun-bong contributed an article to Ming Pao on March 18. They wrote that using Wuhan coronavirus or Wuhan pneumonia in daily communication and media coverage is for the sake of mass communication. The name is easier for the public to understand, compared to the formal term adopted in scientific debates or academic discussions.

Yuen and Lung expressed that during the 2013 SARS outbreak, coronavirus was found in civet cat, leading to an outright ban of game meat trading in China; however, 17 years later, the game meat market is flourishing in China. In other words, China seemed to have forgotten the hard lesson of SARS epidemic. Yuen and Lung criticized the behavior allowing fresh game meat to become food delicacy in modern cities as eye-popping.

The article pointed out directly that the South China seafood wholesale market in Wuhan was the origin of the coronavirus. The virus was spread through cross-infection and mutated from its natural host to an intermediate host and to human being, eventually causing human-to-human infection.

The Wuhan Coronavirus was described in the article as an "outcome of Chinese bad habits" which include the "indiscriminate hunt of wild animals, inhuman treatment of animals, and lack of respect for life". The article concluded that should such culture remain, SARS 3.0 would certainly breakout in some ten years later.

In response to China's statement that the virus was originated in the United States, the article criticized such statement as "unsubstantiated", "self-deceiving" and should be stopped to avoid making fool of themselves.

The article also criticized "the World Health Organization for being slow in its decision to declare a pandemic of COVID-19". As a result, many countries are left insufficiently prepared in anti-epidemic measures vulnerable for the disease. For the time being only Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are better guarded for virus attack.

[Editor's note: In the evening of March 18, Mingpao said Yuen and Lung withdrew their article from the newspaper and that Yuen said that scientists should not get involved with politics. See Stand News Report.]

Sources: Ming Pao; Stand News
#Mar18 #WuhanPneumonia #WHO #China #CoronavirusPandemic #GameMeatDelicacy