Mandatory Covid-19 tests to be imposed in ‘core zone’ as 56 new cases recorded

By The SUN 

CE Lam says testing will be compulsory for residents within a designated area in Yau Ma Tei

The government has ordered coronavirus tests for residents within what it called a “core zone” in Jordan and Yau Ma Tei, even if not a single positive case had been found in their buildings.

The measure was announced early today, Jan 19, by Chief Executive Carrie Lam, ahead of reports that 56 new Covid-19 cases had been recorded in the city in the past 24 hours, all but one of them locally acquired.

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The new cases included 31 recorded from the virus-plagued districts of Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok (YauTsimMong).

"We will request residents living in buildings within this 'core zone' to undergo mandatory coronavirus tests. We will not wait until the first cases emerge at these buildings," Hong Kong’s top official said.

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The designated area is bound by Pak Hoi Street, Temple Street, Ning Po Street and Reclamation Street.

The CE, who spoke before the weekly Executive Council meeting, also said mandatory testing will be extended to residents in a designated area in Sham Shui Po, as soon as one case was found in one of the buildings there.

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This area is bordered by Yen Chow Street, Tai Po Road, Maple Street and Lai Chi Kok Road.

Lam said the testing boost is aimed at finding infected people quickly to stop the transmission of the virus.

Dozens of buildings in the two targeted areas were said to have “poor environment” with no management whatsoever.

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At the same time, Lam announced that the strict social distancing measures currently in place, including a ban on restaurant dine-ins after 6pm, and a prohibition on the public gathering of more than two people, will be extended for at least another week.

Health officials in the daily press briefing on Covid-19 report 56 new cases

Meanwhile, health authorities reported that more than 60 preliminary cases had been identified, including about 30 from screening stations in Yau Tsim Mong.

Of the 56 new cases, only one was imported, involving a newly arrived foreign domestic worker from Indonesia.

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Despite the drop in imported cases due largely to the new 21-day quarantine, authorities have decided to step up border controls further by banning flights from Brazil and Ireland, where more infectious variants of the virus were found recently.

The 55 local cases included 23 which were untraceable.

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Yesterday’s new month-long record of 107 cases sparked fears of a rebound in infections, but CE Lam was quick to allay the concerns.

“I understand people might find the recording of more than 100 cases worrying,” Lam said. “But the spike could have been triggered by the strengthening of compulsory testing.”

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She also dismissed suggestions the spread of the virus in old tenement buildings in YauTsimMong was due to the predominantly East Asian make-up of residents there.

“There is absolutely no suggestion of the spread of disease relating to race or ethnicity,” Lam said. “If there is any misunderstanding arising from any remarks made by any officials, I made it absolutely clear here.”

She was referring to statements made by a health official Monday that members of ethnic groups in the area were engaging in behavior that put them at risk.

The new cases drove up the city’s total coronavirus tall to 9,720 with 164 related deaths.

The latest casualty was an 80-year-old woman who passed on in Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital Monday night.

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Phl, Indo to hold more talks on response to boarding house probe

By Vir B. Lumicao 

The 2 consuls general plan a joint response to Ombudsman's probe (File)

The Philippine and Indonesian consulates general have agreed to hold further discussions to come up with recommendations to the Hong Kong government to address the issue of boarding houses for foreign domestic helpers.

Consul General Raly Tejada and his Indonesian counterpart, Ricky Suhendar, met at the PCG today, Jan 18, in response to Ombudsman Winnie Chiu’s inquiry into problems associated with mostly unlicensed boarding houses in Hong Kong.

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“Yes. Both Consulates General agreed to consult further with a view to sending recommendations to the Hong Kong Government,” ConGen Tejada said this evening.

He said the two consulates general should have their recommendations ready for submission to the host government “in two weeks’ time, perhaps.”

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ConGen Tejada would not give details of what he had discussed with the Indonesian consul general.

“Basically, there is convergence that ensuring the health and safety of our nationals are matters of utmost priority,” ConGen Tejada said.

Tejada says foremost concern is health & safety of migrant workers

Chiu announced last Thursday her office would probe problems associated with the boarding houses, such as overcrowding and poor hygiene.

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She said the government is duty-bound to ensure boarding houses are safe for both the helpers and the general public.

Among the measures that ConGen Tejada hopes the Hong Kong government will do is to open leisure and sports facilities to migrant workers and offer them opportunities for capacity-building activities to enhance their skills.

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These should be in the areas of housekeeping, caregiving, Cantonese language, financial literacy, etc, which the FDWs can engage in on their days off and while waiting for their visas.

The Philippines and Indonesia are the two biggest suppliers of FDHs to Hong Kong, accounting for 365,302 helpers between them, or roughly 98% of the city’s total migrant domestic worker population as of Dec 31 last year.

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Remembering Merly

By Daisy CL Mandap  

Merly spent more than half of her life in Hong Kong, a city she loved

She may not have won any award, or received public plaudits for her many acts of generosity and kindness toward people she hardly knew, but Merly T. Bunda’s passing early on Monday, Jan 18, was met with grief by many in the Filipino community in Hong Kong.

Merly, who was single, succumbed to late-stage cancer of the uterus at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, where she was confined after being diagnosed with the terminal ailment only five months earlier. She spent her 54th birthday there last Dec. 17.

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Within that short period of time, the cancer relentlessly ravaged her body, but she valiantly fought on, never once giving in to suggestions that she should perhaps just go home and spend the rest of her days there.

As a trained midwife, she knew the dangers she faced each time she was made to undergo medical procedures, but she never wavered. She firmly acceded to everything that her doctors suggested, even to the final, dangerous one that her greatly weakened body was not able to withstand.

Merly was visited by friends when she marked her 54th birthday in hospital

People who knew Merly would know that she was being true to form that way. The pretty, delicate-looking Ilongga was known for being gregarious and soft-hearted, but she was also feisty and hard-nosed.

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For the most part of her 30 years of stay in Hong Kong, she made it her business to know what was going on in the community. But it was never because she was prone to gossip; she did it because she was genuinely interested in people, and would offer help whenever she could, even if it meant sharing a big chunk of her hard-earned salary.

Merly (in white) with her SUN family

At The SUN, where she was a regular contributor for the past decade or so, she was the one we all would ask if there was any story or a social media post we wanted to get more information about. She never failed to deliver.

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But fellow contributor Marites Palma remembers Merly more for her kind heart.

“Nag ho hospital visit po siya nun. Marami siyang sinasamahan na mga may problema, lalo na yung mga may nakasanlang passport, mga OS (overstayers) dito. Minsan nauubos ang pera niya sa pagbibigay tulong sa mga na teterminate na tinutulungan niya,” says Marites.

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(She used to do hospital visits, she helped many migrants who had problems, especially those who had pawned their passports to get loans, as well as those who had overstayed their visa. Sometimes she’d use up her money giving help to those whose contracts had been terminated).

Merly with members of 'From a Distance,' a self-help group for OFWs she founded

This was the same sentiment shared by her fellow Ilongga, Erma Geolamin, who introduced Merly to The SUN. Erma, who has moved back to Iloilo to retire, remembers fondly the many times she and Merly would team up, not just to gather stories about troubled migrants, but also to focus on issues that had long plagued the community, like gambling.

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Erma recalls Merly giving her tips about how much money was changing hands among migrants who played cards the whole day at a known Ilonggo haunt in Central so she could write about it. When Erma became a target of the gamblers’ ire, Merly immediately told her to stay away while she secretly did the digging up for her.

It was also Erma who Merly teamed up with in extending help to an overstaying migrant worker who became so popular from their stories that she was soon hailed as the “honest OFW” who returned cash she found in the trash, worth the equivalent of Php1million.

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The truth about her finding only worthless crossed cheques came to light after Merly doggedly worked with The SUN in unraveling the stupendous claim.

It was not the only time Merly was betrayed by a fellow worker she had helped selflessly, but true to her good nature, she rarely, if ever, held a grudge against anyone, much less spoken ill of others.

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As a worker, Merly was well loved by her employers and their families. She worked 15 years for one family, and more than 10 for another. The last one she was particularly attached to, especially to the two children she helped raise from when they were babies.

One of Merly's cherished photos was this one where she's seen reporting for Bombo Radyo

Merly first got the writing bug after being asked to become Hong Kong correspondent for Bombo Radyo in the Philippines at the time of the SARS outbreak here in 2003.

Her booming voice had become so recognizable to people in her Iloilo hometown that many often got surprised on seeing how frail she looked in person.

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“When they meet me in the market, they say ‘how does such a small person have such a big voice,” said Merly in an interview.

That dedicated following prodded Merly to widen her circle that in no time, there was hardly any event or story that escaped her reach. Her Facebook account which she used to report incidents or post cryptic comments, was widely followed, even if she wrote mostly in Ilonggo.

Her passing leaves a big void in the community, for she was kind and generous, as she was exuberant. There are not a lot of people like her.

*Merly’s remains will be flown home to Dingle, Iloilo, in accordance with her family’s wishes. Details of the funeral services will be announced later. 

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New Covid-19 cases shoot up to 107, with about 40% untraceable

By Daisy CL Mandap 

CHP says cases have surged because more people are getting tested (RTHK photo)

A one-month high of 107 new coronavirus cases were reported today, Jan 18, all but five of them locally acquired.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection acknowledged that the number of cases was “a bit high,” but said it was largely because of the mandatory testing ordered by the government for residents of infected buildings.

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“The surge is because we are doing more testing,” Chuang said.

She also noted that 42 of the local cases were of unknown origin, indicating that there’s a significant amount of silent transmissions still going on in the community.

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Among the cases she mentioned in particular were 28 found among residents of buildings in Jordan and Yaumatei that are now under mandatory testing.

Residents of seven more buildings in the area were today also ordered to take tests after new cases were reported from their housing blocks. The buildings are located on Shanghai Sreet, Reclamation Street, Temple Street, Canton Road and Battery Street.

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Chuang said about 120 cases have now been identified within Yaumatei alone. Since early January, some 600 cases have been recorded in the district, and about a quarter of them are reportedly of South Asian descent.

“They usually live in crowded areas with close-knitted community, so they may spread the infection through environmental contamination and also person-to-person interaction with their families and friends in the streets or parks,” said Chuang.

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Of the five imported cases, included was another infection that occurred 19 days after the patient arrived in Hong Kong. Health Department staff said the 54-year-old woman arrived from Nepal on Dec 29, and tested positive on her third mandated test.

She was the third newly arrived patient in the past week to be found infected on the third and final coronavirus test prior to being discharged from quarantine.

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Another patient from Nepal, a 57-year-old man who arrived on Jan 5, tested positive in her second test while in quarantine. The same happened in the case of a 39-year-old man who flew in from United Arab Emirates on Jan 4.

Two others, both foreign domestic workers who each flew in from the Philippines and Indonesia, were found infected on their arrival in Hong Kong. The Filipina is 31 years old and the Indonesian is aged 40.

Another patient tests positive 19 days after arriving in Hong Kong

Dr Sara Ho from the Hospital Authority reported that an 86-year-old female patient at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital passed away at 12:09pm today, raising the total death toll in public hospitals to 159.

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She also reported two medical workers who tested preliminary positive. One is a support staff at QEH who tested positive for the virus on Jan 15. The other is a doctor at Northern District Hospital who worked at the accident and emergency department.

Ho disclosed that the doctor had performed an intubation on a confirmed Covid-19 patient on Jan 5, but had worn adequate PPE.

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“We are not saying this is the source of the infection. In fact, there are a lot of cases in the community and our staff could also be infected in the community,” said Ho. “But we need to do contact tracing to find the source of infection.”

Ho said 578 confirmed patients are being treated in public hospitals, of whom 41 are in critical condition, 27 are serious, and 510 are in stable condition.

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A total of 8,785 patients have so far recovered.

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