Published by James at 23:55 HKT Mar 31, 2003
in News.
I don’t know about other governments around the world, but this Government of the HKSAR doesn’t know the first thing or realizes the utmost detrimental important point of the household confinement quarantine order which started 06:00 this morning at Block E of the Amoy Gardens apartment complex for the next 10 days.
Since the outbreak of the SARS in Hong Kong, the Amoy Gardens has had a total number of over 200 cases out of over 600 total cases in Hong Kong, and most of which were, surprisingly, confined within units 7 and 8 on or above the 9th floor of Block E. Since the quarantine this morning, the authorities has reported 64 new cases at the Amoy Gardens today!
Last Friday, when the Chief Executive of the Government announced a set of procedures in hopes to curb the outbreak, there were over 300 total cases and over 80 of which were from the Amoy Gardens. But the procedures were set to start today.
The quarantine procedures of the Amoy Gardens baffles me. The whole point of any quarantine is to restrict the confined people from having any contact with anyone from the outside of the confinement. However, at 06:00 this morning, the authorities sent out a large number of police with no protective wear except just a medical mask on, and medical personnel with regular doctor’s white gown, plastic hair cover, and medical mask, to hand out notices of the quarantine order door to door. During lunch, the authorities sent up another team to deliver lunch boxes door to door. At night, the authorities had all the tenants go down to the lobby to collect their dinner boxes from the organizers!
I’ll be surprise if this plain stupid procedure did not have every single tenant, some police, plus some medical personnel and other staffs working within the building infected in the next 10 days.
Just what exactly are our goals anyway? Are we out to suppress the growth of the virus, or to incubate it with the citizens of the region?!
Published by James at 16:23 HKT Mar 31, 2003
in Health.
In thinking of ways to lower the chances of spreading the SARS, many suggested one should wear a mask, wash hands, cloths and beddings often, and use separate utensils for dishing out food at the dining table.
I thought of a couple of other things…
1/ Do not scrape food off the spoon or spatula with the rice bowl, as traditionally we all touch our months with our rice bowls when we eat rice. This could contaminate the spoon or spatula and in turn the next bowl.
2/ When we pour drinks, do not touch the bottle with the edge of the glass or cup, as this could contaminate the bottle and in turn the next glass.
These steps are necessary even at home, as we can’t be sure if we have been infected at work.
Please add your suggestions to the comments section.
A numbers of us have been discussing in a local newsgroup on the views of wearing medical masks during this active period of the SARS epidemic. Several webbers have stressed the importance of a mask in protecting oneself and others. Others have suggested the possible health hazards on wearing one. While some stressed that wearing a mask or not is simply a personal choice.
Here is my view…
Continue reading ‘View on Wearing a Medical Mask’
Here in the Hong Kong SAR of China, our government officials are so “proud” of their work in controlling the SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - the killer Pneumonia virus, one high ranking officers self-claimed to have not been wearing medical masks deliberately - in order to “protect” the image” of the region, and the government put out TV announcement telling local citizens that they have the right not to wear medical masks; when in fact, the toll of daily cases here have been increased from averaging 20 some odd cases early last week to 58 cases on the 28th, with the first sign of decrease yesterday to 45 new cases.
Whereas in Vietnam, the first WHO officer, Dr Carlo Urbani, who had identified the outbreak of this new disease and treated the earliest cases in Hanoi died yesterday; but as of yesterday, Vietnam’s new cases tally remained at 58 for the sixth day in a row. A job well done, Vietnam! Keep up the good work.
Published by James at 23:50 HKT Mar 29, 2003
in misc.
An afternoon early this week I received a call from one of the tenants, telling me that there was a stranger with dyed hair and a badly wounded eye claiming he was from so-and-so local courier company and that he had mistakenly delivered a document to my tenant last week. She was all worried but she managed to send the guy away and called me right away since she never did received anything from that courier company.
I immediately notified the guard on the lobby, described the person to him and asked him if he had seen such a guy came in and left the building. He said a guy fitted the description went up the building about 15 minutes ago and didn’t see him leave. I then told the guard to stop that man and question him should he came out of the building.
Right after I’ve talked to the guard, I called my tenants one by one to see if they had seen the man. Several did, several didn’t. From the information I got from the rest of the tenants, it looked as though the guy was about to leave the building if not already left. I called the guard again but no answer. I then got out of my office, about to go down to the lobby to see what had happened to the guard.
As soon as I opened my office door, the silly guard got out of the lift and was about to walk through the building! As soon as he saw me, he said he didn’t see the guy leaving the build yet. I thought to myself, man, how come guards never listen and stick to the instruction given to them?
I thought by then, which was some 15-20 minutes after the first report, the man must have left the building. When the guard got back down to the lobby, he realized the door to the staircase was left opened and the door alarmed was sounding……..
Continue reading ‘An Incident Earlier This Week’
Published by James at 20:26 HKT Mar 29, 2003
in Sports.
Towards the end of the last season, one of the most informative Formula 1 website formula1.com was acquired by the FIA. Since then, the FIA had stopped the site for a major revamp and came up with this upon opening early this month.
I found the font size used is too small even for 800×600 resolution viewing. Also the information is now much less than what the site had before. I sent an email to the webmaster about 3 weeks ago, urging him enlarge their site and use one size up font instead. I received no reply or response of any kind. Although I think they did switch to one size up font since, the amount of information is still no where near what the previous owner had.
I now go here for my F1 info instead.
Many thanks to my dear cousin Peter, who sent me this link of a Russian site (in English)…
Due to the infectious via close contact with exhaled droplets nature of the killer Pneumonia virus, we hear local citizens screaming to have schools closed entirely, and we also hear them asking government officials and event organizers why the Hong Kong Rugby 7 event are not being canceled. The Rolling Stones canceled their Hong Kong concert….
How come no one asks to have the crowded twice weekly horse races canceled?
Published by James at 3:00 HKT Mar 29, 2003
in misc.
tin_the_fatty weblog
On a lighter note…
It is surprising to see that people in Hong Kong actually have very nice eyes.
Today, Steve, Vincent, Kerby, Cornel, and myself had dinner at the Great Shanghai Restaurant. Normally on a Friday evening, restaurants in the Tsim Sha Tsui area would have been packed with customers; however, with the killer Pneumonia virus epidemic affecting the local living, the restaurant was almost empty. I for one, have not been to any busy streets or public transits in the past 10 days or so.
We apologize for the medical masks, but we simply could not let this Kodak moment pass by without a photo. Nevertheless, we had a great time at the dinner, and some of us planned on having a game of golf with Steve the next time he comes over.
WhaUSay?!