Chitchat Good News! Many Dead Jiak Liao Bees in HK with Bodybags all Over!

[Pinkieslut]

 

[Pinkieslut]

Elderly care homes in eye of Hong Kong's deadly COVID-19 storm​

Medical staff enter a care home in Hong Kong (Photo: AFP/File/May JAMES)
11 Mar 2022 12:51PM (Updated: 11 Mar 2022 12:51PM)
HONG KONG: Kathleen Wong thought her 89-year-old mother was lucky to get a coveted spot in a government nursing home, but now she watches in horror as a coronavirus wave tears through Hong Kong's elderly population.
Care homes have become the epicentre of the city's worst outbreak, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of all deaths since January when an Omicron-fuelled resurgence kicked off.
Hong Kong has recorded nearly 3,000 deaths this year, with the majority among the elderly, the city's most vaccine-hesitant group.
"I am on tenterhooks all the time, fearing a sudden call with bad news," Wong told AFP.
Her mother, who has a cognitive disorder and needs help eating, is among the nearly 60,000 residents living in Hong Kong's elderly care homes.
The facilities have recorded more than 1,700 deaths among 22,070 infected tenants - a fatality rate nearing 8 per cent.
Overwhelmed with bodies piling up and elderly patients waiting in outdoor makeshift wards, Hong Kong's hospitals have started turning people away.
This has pushed unequipped and understaffed facilities to battle the disease on their own, said Cheng Ching-fat, secretary-general of the Community Care and Nursing Home Workers General Union.
"Care homes do not have any design or facilities for quarantine," he told AFP.
"Forcing the elderly to return to care homes is not much different from sending them to die."

Related:​

"A PERFECT STORM"​

Hong Kong's strict zero-COVID policy kept the coronavirus at bay for two years, but the city's barriers fell to the highly transmissible Omicron variant at the start of 2022.
In less than three months, the fifth wave's 600,000 confirmed infections have thoroughly eclipsed the 12,000 recorded in the pandemic's first two years.
The actual number of infections is closer to 2 million, according to a University of Hong Kong study, making that one in four residents.
Hong Kong now has one of the highest fatality rates in the developed world.
The death rate is "tragic but expected", said microbiologist Siddharth Sridhar in a tweet, as the city's overwhelmed healthcare system converges with dismal elderly vaccination numbers and low rates of prior infection.
"(All three factors) create a perfect storm."
David, a doctor who visits around 60 elderly homes, said Hong Kong's low death figures in the first two years contributed to a "low level of vigilance" among families with relatives in nursing facilities.
So far, less than 50 per cent of residents in their 70s have received two jabs, while only 32 per cent of over-80s have two vaccine shots.
The hesitancy stemmed from fears they could badly sicken the elderly, he said.
"Many family members told us ... it would be very hard for them if the elderly suffered side effects and even died of it," David, who requested a pseudonym to speak freely, told AFP.
The city did not help matters with a lack of transparency over post-vaccination deaths, only trotting out experts each month to say they were unrelated without providing further details.
On Wednesday, as more than 700 facilities recorded infections, Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam said all care home residents would receive at least one vaccine dose within two weeks.
But unionist Cheng said the efforts came "too late".
"They can't stop old people dying."

EXHAUSTED STAFF​

Tenants in the homes are often bed-ridden, living in spaces measuring as little as 6.5 sq m and separated by crude partitions.
At Gracious Alliance, a facility in Hong Kong island's Aberdeen district, half the 32 tenants and all staff members were infected within a fortnight in February, CEO Rebecca Chau Tsang told AFP.
They used a large room with a toilet to quarantine the infected and had a buffer room for close contacts, but it was "almost no use" given Omicron's high transmissibility, she said.
In the end, two mildly ill employees stayed to care for sick residents, while a health worker clocked 20 hours a day for both the infected and the uninfected.
"This battle has exhausted all of us," Chau said.
Wong, whose mother is staying in one of the few remaining care homes in Hong Kong unmarred by COVID-19, said she does not blame frontline workers.
"The problem lies with the government, which has no solution and has not done anything effective to combat the epidemic," she said.
Wong laments having to scrap a plan to bring her mother home after her residential complex recorded spiralling coronavirus cases.
"All we can do is just sit and wait, but how long can the old people hang in there?"

 

[mako65]

Oohhh dear, that's cleansing by biological means!

 

[Leongsam]

This is what happens when you put a woman in charge of the country.

Women leaders shine during COVID-19 pandemic​

Author Tracie WhitePublished on May 12, 2020


Women hold only 7% of the world's government leadership roles, but several women leaders are drawing praise for their skillful navigation of the coronavirus pandemic.

In Germany, New Zealand and Taiwan -- among other countries -- women are being held up as role models on how to effectively guide countries through a public health crisis.

They've been lauded for their swift action, trust in science and ability to make difficult decisions with empathy and compassion. As a result, they've succeeded in minimizing the impact of this disease on their countries.

Just what attributes and qualities led to these successes?

That was the topic of a recent webinar hosted by WomenLift Health. The all-woman panel included a former prime minister of New Zealand, past president of Nigeria and an academic expert on the topic of gender and leadership.

"The news coming out of many countries is striking enough to take note," said Amie Batson, a Stanford employee who is executive director of WomenLift Health. "Many of the countries that are doing the best are led by women."

Reports from The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN and USA Today have all highlighted the success of women leaders who have minimized deaths from COVID-19 in their countries by making hard decisions and inspiring the support of their communities, Batson said. "These women leaders have been hailed as 'voices of reason' amid the coronavirus chaos," she said.

Their approaches have been effective, the panelists said, because they incorporate empathy and compassion, preparedness and an ability to collaborate and listen before making policy decisions. Most importantly, they said, these women leaders know how to inspire their populations to make the necessary sacrifices to control COVID-19 outbreaks.

"It looks as though women leaders have been able to motivate their followers," said Zoe Marks, PhD, lecturer in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School.
Marks wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post that attributed Germany's low COVID-19 death rate to Angela Merkel's "reasoning rather than rousing." The article also pointed to successes in other countries led by women, including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

 

[tanwahtiu]

Cathay Airline had one advert say Fly Cathay to HK, it will take yr breath away....

Ummmm.... sounds good for old fart boomers...

 

[gingerlyn]

What to do ? Their leaders are appointed by China and the virus was also created by China

 

[poore]

imagine those not dead looking at the body bags in the same ward......

 

[Linglinglonglong]

Should vac seal the bags to preserve them til they can be given decent burial

 

[gingerlyn]

Hong Kong should know why they perform so badly under communist

 

[tanwahtiu]

Can eat don't waste... taste like chicken.... free congy meal to the homeless.. mince it.

Should vac seal the bags to preserve them til they can be given decent burial

 

[tobelightlight]

Are the dead vaccinated?

 

[Leongsam]

Seven die with Covid-19 as NZ passes grim milestone, 18,699 new cases​

• News
• Covid-19

Author NZ Herald, Publish Date Sat, 12 Mar 2022, 12:55PM

(Photo / NZ Herald)

Seven people have died with Covid-19, the Ministry of Health says, signalling a grim milestone as the country's death toll since the beginning of the pandemic passes 100.
The latest deaths bring New Zealand's Covid-19 death toll to 105
There is a slight drop off in cases today with a new 18,699 confirmed with Covid - but 853 people are in hospital with the virus. Seven are in ICU or high dependency unit care.
"This is another reminder that the Omicron variant can still cause serious illness and/or death either directly or by its impact on other health conditions," the ministry said in a statement.
"Getting vaccinated and boosted will help to keep you out of hospital if you catch COVID-19 and could save your life.
"At this sad time, our thoughts are with the whanau and friends of all those who have died."
The majority of the deaths were in the North Island, the ministry confirmed.
" Of these deaths, three occurred in the Auckland region, and one each in Bay of Plenty, MidCentral, Wellington and Canterbury.
"The total number of publicly reported Covid-19 related deaths to date is now 105.
"Of the people who have died that we are announcing today, one person was in their fifties, two were in their 70s, two were in their 80s, and two were in their 90s. Four were male and three were female.
"Out of respect for affected families, we will be making no further comment."
The locations of the cases in hospital are: Northland: 19; North Shore: 172; Middlemore: 199; Auckland: 208; Waikato: 69; Bay of Plenty: 28; Lakes: 12; Tairāwhiti: 3, Hawke's Bay: 23; Taranaki: 10; MidCentral: 18; Whanganui: 2; Hutt Valley: 19; Capital and Coast: 33; Wairarapa: 5; Nelson Marlborough: 3; Canterbury: 22; and Southern: 8.
The average age of those needing hospital care is 59.
More than 6000 of the new cases are in Auckland.
The location of all new community cases are: Northland (670), Auckland (6,077), Waikato (1,700), Bay of Plenty (1,247), Lakes (496), Hawke's Bay (730), MidCentral (667), Whanganui (162), Taranaki (462), Tairāwhiti (377), Wairarapa (169), Capital and Coast (1,545), Hutt Valley (937), Nelson Marlborough (424), Canterbury (2,028), South Canterbury (118), Southern (848), West Coast (32); while a further 10 have been listed as "unknown".
In contrast, there were just 16 cases of Covid-19 picked up at the border.
The total number of active community cases (now deemed as being identified in the past 10 days but not yet classified as recovered) is 206,288,
Confirmed total cases (including those who have recovered) is now 346,621.
As of 11.59pm last night, the isolation period for cases and household contacts was now reduced from 10 to seven days.
The Ministry of Health again stated that this change applies to anyone who is isolating at the time of the change.
"If you test positive for Covid-19, you are required to isolate for seven days," the ministry said. "You do not need to be retested after your initial positive result. "If you still have symptoms after seven days, stay home until you feel better and then wait another 24 hours.
"If you are a household contact and you have done a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) on both days 3 and 7 of the isolation period of the first COVID-19 positive person in your house, and both tests are negative, you can leave isolation on day 8 if you are well.
"If you are a household contact and return a positive RAT result while isolating, you will need to isolate for a further 7 days and wait till 24 hours after you are symptom free. Other household members do not have to reset their isolation and can leave isolation on day 8, the same day as the first case can leave isolation, provided they have returned negative RAT results and are not symptomatic."
The ministry said that if you have tested negative, but still feel sick or symptomatic, they "strongly" advised people to follow public health guidance and "stay home and away from public places, work and other social gatherings to keep others and yourself safe".
A strain on the health system is beginning to show, according to doctors around the country.
Northern Region Health Coordination Centre (NRHCC) chief clinical officer Dr Andrew Old said half of those in ICU were in Auckland as staff across the city's hospitals were picking up jobs outside their normal roles to help manage demand.
Old said the numbers in Auckland gave rise to "cautious optimism" around having reached a peak, but we were "not out of the woods yet". While we are down from the peak of last week, it's believed some of that peak was because of the switch to RATs.
At Waitematā DHB, the entire legal team had been redeployed to support security guards and the chief financial officer had been working the wards, delivering patient meals.
Anaesthetists at Auckland Hospital were working as phlebotomists and taking blood, while members of the executive leadership team were working in the emergency department, making beds, answering calls and clearing linen skips.
At Counties Manukau DHB, public health nurses were helping in hospital roles, allied health clinicians were assisting orderly teams, and registered nurses, healthcare assistants and on-call staff had picked up shifts outside their normal hours to fill roster gaps.
"The situation in our hospital, with pressure from patients with Covid combined with high staff absences due to Covid, is unprecedented, certainly in my career," Old said.
"It's thanks to the awesome dedication and flexibility of our staff that we are continuing to provide safe, urgent care for everyone who needs it."
Regional chair of the Australia and New Zealand Intensive Care Society Dr Craig Carr said the demand on intensive care was a real challenge, but teams were holding up reasonably well.
Prior to Covid, 12 to 15 per cent of elective surgery in New Zealand that required intensive care was postponed because of a lack of ICU capacity, and Covid-19 was causing that postponement rate to rise.
"Our big fear as a community is that will involve postponement of essential cancer surgery, essential cardiac surgery. That's certainly the experience we're seeing from colleagues overseas," Carr said.
Carr understands of the around 170 resourced ICU beds in New Zealand, about 150 or 89 per cent were occupied. Yesterday, there were 20 people in ICU units.

 

[Sideswipe]

HK was doing very well fighting covid and then suddenly everything goes to shit.

 

[gingerlyn]

HK was doing very well fighting covid and then suddenly everything goes to shit.

No choice, it is what China wants it to be

 

[syed putra]

Looks like eating chinese food have no health benefit.