HONG KONG: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Sunday she plans to review COVID-19 restrictions on Monday, just days after acknowledging that many financial institutions were “losing patience” with coronavirus policies in the financial hub.
The Chinese-ruled city has some of the most stringent COVID-19 rules in the world, with a ban on flights from nine countries including Australia and Britain, and hotel quarantine of up to two weeks for incoming travelers.
The city has also imposed a ban on gatherings of more than two people, while most public venues are closed, including beaches and playgrounds, face masks are compulsory and there is no face-to-face learning for students.
On Saturday, authorities reported a three-week low of 16,597 new COVID-19 cases, down from more than 20,000 a day earlier.
The coronavirus outbreak has swept through elderly care homes and paralyzed many parts of the city.
In recent weeks, streets in the heart of Hong Kong’s financial center have been eerily quiet, restaurants and bars shuttered or empty, and supermarket shelves bare as people snapped up groceries amid fears of a city-wide lockdown.
Many businesses across the city have been forced to shut, including gyms, restaurants, and bars, while others say they are living on borrowed time and need restrictions to ease immediately in order to survive.
Hong Kong has seen a net outflow of around 50,000 people so far this month, compared with more than 71,000 in February and nearly 17,000 in December before the fifth wave hit.
While Hong Kong is officially clinging to a “zero-COVID” strategy that aims to curb all outbreaks, recent actions and policy tweaks suggest it is pivoting away from that at a time when most other major global cities are learning to live with the virus.
The official policy mirrors that of mainland China which is also facing a huge challenge as a jump in cases restricts the movement of millions of people and affects some of the country’s industrial hubs.
Hong Kong leader says plans to review COVID-19 restrictions on Monday
https://arab.news/6kkp8
Hong Kong leader says plans to review COVID-19 restrictions on Monday
- Chinese-ruled city has some of the most stringent COVID-19 rules in the world
- The city has imposed a ban on gatherings of more than two people
Germany says UN rights rapporteur for Palestinian territories should quit
- Albanese has said that her comments are being falsely portrayed
- “I have never, ever, ever said ‘Israel is the common enemy of humanity’,” Albanese said
BERLIN: German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Thursday called for the resignation of the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, over comments she made allegedly targeting Israel at a conference.
“I respect the UN system of independent rapporteurs. However, Ms Albanese has made numerous inappropriate remarks in the past. I condemn her recent statements about Israel. She is untenable in her position,” Wadephul wrote on X.
Albanese has said that her comments are being falsely portrayed. She denounced what she called “completely false accusations” and “manipulation” of her words in an interview with broadcaster France 24 on Wednesday.
Speaking via videoconference at a forum in Doha on Saturday organized by the Al Jazeera network, Albanese referred to a “common enemy of humanity” after criticizing “most of the world” and much of Western media for enabling the “genocide” in Gaza.
“And this is a challenge — the fact that instead of stopping Israel, most of the world has armed, given Israel political excuses, political sheltering, economic and financial support,” she said.
Albanese said that “international law has been stabbed in the heart” but added that there is an opportunity since “we now see that we as a humanity have a common enemy.”
Wadephul’s French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot on Wednesday made the same call for Albanese to resign over the comments.
“France unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks made by Ms Francesca Albanese, which are directed not at the Israeli government, whose policies may be criticized, but at Israel as a people and as a nation, which is absolutely unacceptable,” Barrot told French lawmakers.
Albanese posted video of her comments to X on Monday, writing in the post that “the common enemy of humanity is THE SYSTEM that has enabled the genocide in Palestine, including the financial capital that funds it, the algorithms that obscure it and the weapons that enable it.”
In her interview with France 24, which was recorded before Barrot’s statement, she contended that her comments were being misrepresented.
“I have never, ever, ever said ‘Israel is the common enemy of humanity’,” Albanese told the broadcaster.
