Vegetable shortage adds to Hong Kong’s COVID woes

HONG KONG, Feb 8 (UNA): Hong Kong’s vegetable supply dipped on Tuesday as shoppers scrambled to buy whatever they could find, as the government blamed the re-emergence of COVID-19 on lower deliveries of fresh produce. from the mainland.

Leader Carrie Lam was due to announce more COVID restrictions later in the day after the city reported a record number of more than 600 new cases on Monday. TVB said there were at least 380 confirmed infections on Tuesday, with 400 initial positive tests.

Lam said, in a weekly news briefing, that shipments of vegetables across the border were halted as a result of truck drivers testing positive for the virus, but she did not offer any specific solutions to resolve the shortage, according to Reuters.

Shelves stocking vegetables were bare in many of the city’s supermarkets as crowds flocked to fresh markets to snap up the limited produce available. Other food items remained available.

At a market in downtown Wan Chai market on Tuesday morning, an employee from the Qiandama vegetable store shouted to the crowd not to enter.

“No more vegetables inside… It’s like a battlefield,” she said as people tried to attack.

Some vegetable and fruit stalls selling mainland Chinese produce were closed while others were selling produce at double their usual prices.

Lam said the best option at the moment is to stick to the “dynamic zero” strategy that China is using to suppress all coronavirus outbreaks as quickly as possible.

The official Chinese Communist Party newspaper, People’s Daily, encouraged Hong Kong to take China’s approach to containing the virus in an editorial on Monday.

“The spread of the virus must be contained as much as possible and as quickly as possible,” Lam said.

Hong Kong’s strict coronavirus policies have turned the once-largest global travel and business center into one of the world’s most isolated major cities.

The economic and psychological toll from the hard-line approach is mounting rapidly, as measures are becoming more draconian than those first implemented at the start of the pandemic in 2020.

Flights are down 90%, and schools, stadiums, gyms and most other places are closed. Restaurants close at 6pm (10:00 GMT), while most people, including the majority of civil servants, work from home.

Government quarantine facilities are also nearing their peak as authorities struggle to keep up with their strict scheme to trace contacts.

Several health experts said the current strategy of shutting itself down as the rest of the world shifts to coexistence with the coronavirus is unsustainable.

Doctors say mental health suffers, particularly in families where people earn less, or children cannot go to school due to restrictions.

HF