It has now spawn numerous jokes, satires, lamentations and more. On Wednesday, the Hong Kong government banned all in-restaurant dining, in a bid to slow down the virus from spreading. Previously, it had already banned dinner. Now it is banning breakfast and lunch.
It does make sense - as an attempt to further enforce social distancing. However, people still have to find a place to eat. Where are they supposed to go? At our university, most students do not come to campus anymore. But many staff still have to. As are many workers on various construction, maintenance, repair, …, projects. For example, my door, which was damaged during the occupation last November, has not yet been completely fixed, more than half a year afterwards. Our own staff can generally eat at their office or some common room. But not these workers from outside. Hence our university has set up a covered area, with social distancing and ventilation, for them. Some churches and community organisations have also done something similar. Lots of people in the community are trying to help.
That still left many workers having to eat on sidewalks, telephone booths, park benches, under an umbrella when it rains, crowded together because of lack of space, even in public toilets, …, in unsanitary and unhealthy environments. While lots of properly designed, air-conditioned spaces sit empty. It does not make a lot of sense.
Now the government is scrambling to provide lunch areas from their community centers, and is rumoured to be relaxing the ban.
Why does this scenario sound so familiar. With so many highly-paid, powerful government officials in our government, why are the policies so often half-baked, full of loopholes and obvious deficiencies? Not so long ago, the government was claiming that their policies on social distancing were very precise. This certainly does not look very precise to us.
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