🌊 Testing 7.4 million

What to do instead of abandoning your helpers.

Harbour Times

Feb 22

Good morning.

I have no words other than “this is ridiculous” in reaction to what I’m seeing in the news today.

— Jasmine Lee

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On Today’s Tide

Help our helpers | What you can do if your helper gets COVID-19.

COVID-19 | All 7.4 million of Hong Kong is getting tested for COVID-19.

Events | 30 years of Hong Kong photographs exhibition extended.

Behind the paywall:

Education | Schools close next month.

Crime | Cops bust counterfeit N95 operation.

Jobs | Civic Exchange is hiring!

What to do if your helper gets COVID

Help our helpers (aka is it that hard to be decent to other humans????)

With the number of domestic helpers who have been kicked out of their employers’ homes after testing positive for COVID-19, it’s important to spread awareness of what to do instead, because apparently people really do not see their helpers as humans.

Read and share this post by General Manager of HelperChoice Mahée Leclerc, which advises employers what they can do if their domestic workers get the virus:

Post by Mahée Leclerc on LinkedIn. Source.

You get a test! You get a test! Everybody gets a COVID test!

COVID-19

I don’t have time to photoshop Carrie Lam’s face onto this, but feel free to imagine.

It’s happening folks: everyone in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will have to undergo mandatory tests for COVID-19 three time in the month of March.

“Well how the heck are they going to pull that off?” The city is making plans to set up hundreds of testing centres and arrange testing schedules according to people’s date of birth. On the days when Hongkongers aren’t queueing for hours to get a stick shoved up their nose, they’ll be required to take daily rapid antigen tests that will be sent to their homes. KN95 masks will also be distributed to supply people with better protective wear. The government will be adding more units at existing isolation facilities and constructing five new facilities which will have a total of 20,000 units. A new holding centre with 100 beds for elderly patients in Kwun Tong is now up and running.

If you test positive for COVID, it’s off to the quarantine facility for you! Even if you’re Cyril who lives all alone because he wouldn’t want to, in his words, “infect my elderly ghost roommate”. On a more serious note, parents are being separated from their children in situations where facilities are at capacity. This has left one mother in particular “crying and hysterical” after medical staff took her 11-month-old away for COVID-19 treatment. Domestic helpers who are flying into HK will be able to quarantine at any designated hotel given that the two hotels originally meant for helpers are being changed to accommodate virus patients starting next month.

Police officers are required to take daily or weekly COVID-19 tests as of today. So far 300 individuals in the police force have tested positive with COVID-19 in the city’s latest wave.

The two drivers of the IT Secretary and his deputy have tested positive for COVID-19, meaning that the two government officials will be quarantining at home.

Events/Exhibitions, etc.

We want to make sure that what we advertise is interesting for our readers, so if you go to an event that you saw here, let us know by taking a selfie and tagging us on Twitter or Instagram ( both @harbourtimes ).

We’ll throw in a free month of Paid High Tide for yourself or a friend!

EXTENDED | Recovery, Resilience, Resurgence: Asia Soc HK

From the exhibition website:

This exhibition’s photos show Hong Kong during consecutive periods, as it was seen around the middle of the last century. The images span some thirty years of great change: from the postwar recovery in 1946 – 1947, through the resilience of the 1950s, to the resurgence of the 1960s – 1970s. The photos were taken by three photographers. In the order of their Hong Kong work they were: Hedda Morrison, Lee Fook Chee and Brian Brake. Each had markedly different life backgrounds and photographic objectives.

Please note the exhibition end date has been moved from 6 March to 6 June.

Where: Asia Society Hong Kong Centre, 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty, Hong Kong

Note: The Asia Society is closed until 23 Feb earliest, depending on upcoming COVID restrictions. See the exhibition virtually for free.

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