It's been weird going through this as an expat living in HK. I'm scared to go through the monster virus thread so I guess I'm gonna just talk about this hear.
I went on vacation to Shanghai on January 25th, CNY when things really kicked off. The city was a ghost town - cold, wet and empty with it's massive scale. By Sunday, I was afraid I was going to get locked down there and it was a struggle to find somewhere open for food (no stove in the hotel obv). I flew back Tuesday and HK was just starting to mobilize. At that time, I was not checked for Temp entering Hong Kong and was only given a Declaration form on the plane THAT NO ONE COLLECTED. I was pretty concerned that things were going to blow up here and HK went pretty full non-enforced lockdown for most of February. I was telling my friends back home about this but it all seemed like a joke on the TL. Maybe my hottest take of the century is that those obviously evil asshole senators weren't truly insider trading about the virus in March if anyone cared about the fact that Asian people had been dying for months at that point.
Overall, HK seemed to avoid the explosion in numbers despite the inflow of people from Mainland at a time where those flights were banned globally. The social distancing and working from home helps but we also have had 98% mask participation. I realize that the West has allocation problems with masks, but from what my local friends say, masks were a big part in overcoming SARs. The memory of SARs was really alive here at the beginning so that was another factor.
With HK expats fleeing Eurpoe and America back home, infections have more than doubled the past two weeks to over 500. Considering the density, this was still better than I expected but people have been outraged as some of those coming back flaunted their tracking bracelets out at LKF last weekend. Within 24 hour, three sets of parents showed up at my center asking if any teachers had been to LKF. Within 72 hours, Carrie Lam had ordered the halt of all alcohol sales at bars and restaurants, effectively closing the former.
Today, she reversed the discussed liquor ban due to backlash but put in place a ban on gathering of more than 4 people for at least two weeks.
Somehow managed to keep my job, which is mostly online teaching now, but this week they announced a 25% reduction in salary
by Pete (Disney) » Mon Oct 07, 2019 3:45 am 
