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UPDATE: A Hong Kong friend emails:
Hoping not to jinx it, but pretty good news.
Only two cases in Hong Kong in the past week or so.
(Since the 14th, one case on the 18th and one on the 20th).That comes down to:
1 – Hong Kong shut the border with China
2 – People know the protocol after dealing with SARS 17 years ago.
3 – People wear masks, etc. out of courtesy to others as much as for themselves – so 99% are wearing masks within 4-6 feet of other people.
4 – Doctors being hyper-vigilant. As there are still many “unknowns”, confirmed and sick patients will not only have to be cleared of their symptoms and signs (such as X-ray and various tests) but also (most important) at least TWO molecular tests free of the virus in their respiratory system before they can be released (although they are not sick).People doing lots of hiking in the great outdoors with good weather of late while shopping malls remain empty.
Fingers crossed. I’d like nothing better than to see this fizzle.
That last part is good news.
Why the numbers in Wuhan and Hubei are artificially low, or,:
Sealed in: Chinese trapped at home by coronavirus feel the strain
Feb 22, Reuters = 5 min read
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-quarantine-idUKKCN20G0AY
(article quotes are not consecutive)
1. Li said the family had eaten the same combination of white rice, cabbage and peanuts for three weeks... stinting on portions due to limits on the numbers of people from each household allowed out to shop....the family could now only buy food at the gate of their compound....Wuhan... says it will ensure food and other necessities through group orders as supermarkets stopped selling to individuals. Some communities have arranged for vendors to come to the their compounds gates. Hubei has said drugs and other necessities must be delivered to residents...Hundreds of official 24-hour telephone hotlines for psychological support have been launched since the beginning of the outbreak, but many are overwhelmed.
2. “Sealed management will continue so that no one will go outside, but they must still be able to buy their daily necessities,” Wuhan’s newly appointed Communist Party chief, Wang Zhonglin, said last Sunday.... policy depends heavily on residential committees, a network of volunteers who carry out government and Communist Party orders...“These people in the compound, when they get even a little bit of power, they will use all their energy to try to get in your way,” she said.
“It’s like the Stanford prison experiment,” she added...