Covid-19: senior Hong Kong dignitaries sent to quarantine after party
A sign inside a quarantine hotel, during the Covid-19 pandemic, in Hong Kong, August 30, 2021. REUTERS - TYRONE SIU
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
In Hong Kong, dozens of senior officials were sent to a quarantined camp for participating in a party without respecting barrier gestures.
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The photo posted on social networks might seem trivial.
It shows Witman Hung singing into a microphone, his arm around a young woman, all smiles.
Hong Kong's representative to the National People's Congress of China celebrates his birthday amid dozens of diners at a bar on the island.
But at the start of the year, the Omicron variant has just appeared in Hong Kong.
And in the photo, no one is wearing a mask, no social distancing is respected.
2022 starts with an old dude hosting a birthday party, inviting 100+ guests including 8 government officials.
Here, birthday boi is mask-off and sings a hearty round of karaoke.
And HK is on lockdown.
Who is he?
Witman Hung, JP, member of the Chinese National People's Congress https://t.co/SwvhjLhCIo pic.twitter.com/BM1TUE5MZ9
- Verbatim HKG đź‡đź‡° (@VerbatimHKG) January 7, 2022
The case is scandalous
Two guests tested positive.
All were therefore summoned and sent for three weeks to a quarantined camp, as is planned for contact cases.
And it doesn't matter if the 170 party attendees include high-ranking Hong Kong dignitaries: the Home Affairs Minister, police chiefs and 19 members of the Legislative Council, which is due to hold its first session on Wednesday.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam said she was "
very disappointed
" by this affair.
Several officials had to issue a public apology.
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To read also: China: the zero tolerance strategy in the face of Covid-19 undermined by the variants
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