🌊New COVID is here

One Country, Two Systems, Chanted Elon Musk

Good morning.

Today I learned about Moutai, the famous Chinese liquor that is supposedly the third most expensive liquor after Scotch and Bourbon. By that I mean I had some and it was really nice.

But what’s cool is that Baiji, which Moutai is a type of, is actually doesn’t go through a ‘wash’ process and, from what I understand, there is no intrinsic liquid. The mix of ingredients goes into a massive steamer and the resulting liquid is what gets aged into liquor.

So we’re drinking steam juice.

— Cyril

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On Today’s Tide

• Politics | King of Judicial reviews vs Lo Chung Mau

• COVID | New strain patient zero

• Weather | Cool nights incoming (or already here)

• Events

Behind the paywall:

• Politics | Art. 23 not on LegCo agenda

• Greater China | Elon Musk mansplains East Asia

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King of Judicial Reviews vs Sec. Lo Chung-Mau

Kwok Cheuk-Kin, the ‘King of Judicial Reviews’ is to fight the government on whether the annuling of nearly 20,000 vaccine exemption certificates.

Kwok says that he is the holder of one such annuled certificate, said the government had abused its power by quashing all the certificates at once. He also argued that the barring of unvaccinated individuals would be considered discrminatory.

“The Health Bureau abused its power and prohibited those not suitable to take the vaccines from various activities as if [we] were criminals” said Kwok.

In light of the “potential urgency” of the case, Judge Russel Coleman said yesterday that Kwok will initiate the case next Tuesday.

• How did we get here?

The challenge of whether the annulment of 20,000 certificates is an abuse of power was brought up late last week by lawmaker Doreen Kong in LegCo who additionally claimed it was not within the rule of law. The day after, Executive Councilor Ronny Tong said that calling the debate a rule of law issue would be an exaggeration.

Soon after, the government announced preferential treatment for those with annuled passes who want to get a new consulatation of vaccination eligibility. Yesterday, the government also announced that temporary vaccination passes will be given to the affected as long as they are intending to get jabbed.

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COVID in Hong Kong

Hong Kong SAR Government News @newsgovhk

The Centre for Health Protection says it is investigating 4,478 additional locally acquired #COVID19 cases, of which 1,172 were identified through nucleic acid tests and 3,306 via rapid antigen tests

news.gov.hk4.4k COVID-19 cases reportedThe Centre for Health Protection says it is investigating 4,478 additional locally acquired COVID-19 cases, of which 1,172 were identified through nucleic acid tests and 3,306 via rapid antigen tests.

COVID-19 in Hong Kong

• New cases: 4874 (396 imported)

• Total cases: 1,806,688

• New deaths: 10

• Total deaths: 10,228

• Compulsory Testing locations: 68

BA.2.75.2 & XBB Patient 0 Arrive

Hong Kong logged its first case of both Omicron strains BA.2.75.2 and XBB.1 yesterday. XBB is a strain which combines two earlier Omicron strains which is about 50% more contagious than BA.1. 

The XBB.1 strain came from a roughly 50 year woman coming from the US, while the BA.2.72.2 case was a 32 year old woman from Singapore. Both arrives in the last week of September.

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Weather flip-flopping for days to come

The HKO announced that due to a replenishment of the northeast monsoon that came south towards Hong Kong over the weekend, days will become hotter, while evenings cooler. The different of temperature will also be more apparent with a difference of around 6 degrees said the HKO.

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Events and deals

Support Harbour Times, our friends and partners by attending these events! Let everyone know who sent you by tagging @harbourtimes

• International Ponte Music Festival: Concerto Competition (Grand Finale)

To showcase the power of young local music talent, Ponte is delighted to present to eight finalists from their International Ponte Music Festival: Concerto Competition, held early this year.

We welcome you to this Grand Finale and witness these rising stars to make their debut with an orchestra.

When: 22nd October 2022 (Saturday); 19:30 – 22:00 pm
Where: Hong Kong Jockey Club Amphitheatre, HKAPA
Cost: From $180-$220

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