Hong Kong’s first COVID-19 lockdown exposes deep-rooted inequality

Written by Vivian Wang and Tiffany May
When Shirley Leung, 60, awoke enclosed in Hong Kong’s first coronavirus lockdown, she surveyed the tiny room she shares along with her grownup son, which inserts a single mattress and cardboard bins and plastic tubs for storing garments.
She tried to disregard the odor of the ceiling and partitions, which had been blanketed with mildew. She rationed out the contemporary greens she had at house, dissatisfied with the canned meals and immediate noodles the federal government had offered when it imposed the restrictions Saturday. She thought-about the cramped, interconnected nature of her house constructing.
“If one room is infected, then how is it possible for cases not to spread among subdivided flats?” Leung mentioned in a phone interview. “How can it be safe?”
Hong Kong has lengthy been some of the unequal locations on Earth, a metropolis the place modern luxurious malls sit shoulder-to-shoulder with overcrowded tenements the place the toilet generally doubles because the kitchen. In regular occasions, that inequality is usually hid by the town’s glittery floor. But throughout the coronavirus pandemic, its value has grow to be unmistakable.
More than 160 confirmed instances had been discovered within the neighborhood of Jordan from Jan. 1 to the top of final week, out of about 1,100 citywide. The authorities responded by locking down 10,000 residents in a 16-block space. More than 3,000 staff, many in hazmat fits, descended on the world to conduct mass testing.
Hong Kong’s chief govt, Carrie Lam, mentioned Tuesday that the lockdown had been successful and added that extra might be forthcoming; officers introduced one in close by Yau Ma Tei quickly after.
A resident in Jordan, a working-class neighborhood of Hong Kong, is examined for COVID-19 on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. (Lam Yik Fei/The New York Times)
Officials urged that the dilapidated residing circumstances of many residents in Jordan had fueled the virus’ unfold. A densely packed neighborhood identified for a vigorous evening market, getting old high-rise flats and plentiful eateries, Jordan is house to among the metropolis’s highest concentrations of tenements, the subdivided flats which are created when flats are parceled out into two or extra smaller ones.
More than 200,000 of the town’s poorest residents dwell in such models, the place the typical residing area per particular person is 48 sq. toes — lower than one-third the dimensions of a New York City parking area. Some areas are so tiny and restrictive that they’re known as cages or coffins.

The similar circumstances which will have led to the outbreak additionally made the lockdown notably painful for a lot of residents, who apprehensive about lacking even a day of labor or feared being trapped in poorly ventilated hotbeds of transmission. Officials admitted that they didn’t know precisely how many individuals lived within the subdivided flats, complicating efforts to check everybody. Discrimination in opposition to low-income South Asian residents, a lot of whom are concentrated within the space, additionally brought on issues.
Some have blamed the federal government for permitting the circumstances for an outbreak to fester after which imposing heavy-handed measures on a bunch that may least afford to bear them. Wealthy Hong Kongers have brought on outbreaks of their very own or flouted social-distancing guidelines, with out related penalties.
“If they did anything wrong, it is to be poor, to live in a subdivided flat, or to have a different skin color,” mentioned Andy Yu, an elected official within the lockdown space.
Since the pandemic began, the subdivided flats have been a supply of concern.
Market stall homeowners within the Jordan neighborhood of Hong Kong show to name for financial support from the federal government on Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. (Lam Yik Fei/The New York Times)
Leung, the retiree, and her son have only one mattress, which she sleeps in at evening and her son sleeps in throughout the day, after coming back from in a single day shifts as a development employee. A roof beam was displaying cracks, however the landlord had delay fixing it, she mentioned. The mildew has additionally been a constant drawback, due to soiled water dripping from a neighboring unit.
The plumbing in subdivided flats is usually reconfigured to permit for extra bogs or kitchens, however the set up is steadily defective. During the SARS outbreak in 2002-03, greater than 300 individuals in a single housing property had been contaminated, and 42 died, after the virus unfold by means of faulty plumbing.
The authorities promised reforms after SARS however has acknowledged that the state of affairs stays perilous.
“Many of the buildings in the restricted area are older and in disrepair,” Sophia Chan, the secretary for meals and well being, mentioned on Saturday. “The risk of community infection is very high.”
The lockdown finally lasted simply two days, till midnight Sunday, when the federal government mentioned it had efficiently examined many of the space’s residents. Thirteen individuals examined optimistic.
But consultants mentioned the federal government had failed to handle the underlying points.
Wong Hung, the affiliate director of the Institute of Health Equity on the Chinese University of Hong Kong, mentioned the federal government didn’t adequately regulate subdivided flats.
“They’re afraid that if they do anything, there is no place these kinds of lower-income families can find accommodation,” Wong mentioned. Hong Kong’s real-estate market is constantly ranked because the world’s least inexpensive.
Low Hung-kau at his meals stall in Jordan, a working-class neighborhood of Hong Kong, on Monday, Jan. 25, 2021. (Lam Yik Fei/The New York Times)
Income inequality in Hong Kong can also be tightly interwoven with ethnicity, and the pandemic has exacerbated long-standing discrimination in opposition to South Asian residents, who make up about 1% of the town’s inhabitants. Nearly one-third of South Asian households with kids in Hong Kong fall beneath the poverty line, virtually double the proportion for all households citywide, in line with authorities knowledge.
Many South Asians dwell in and round Jordan, together with in subdivided flats, and because the virus unfold, some locals started making sweeping accusations of unhygienic habits.
Raymond Ho, a senior well being official, stoked outrage final week when he urged that Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities had been fueling transmission as a result of “they like to share food, smoke, drink alcohol and chat together.” Lam, the town’s chief, later mentioned the federal government was not suggesting that the unfold of the illness was linked to ethnicity.
Sushil Newa, the proprietor of a brightly painted Nepalese restaurant within the lockdown zone, confirmed screenshots on his cellphone of commenters on-line evaluating his neighborhood to animals and suggesting they had been alcoholics.
“We’re just working hard here, paying taxes, so how come we are isolated from Hong Kong?” mentioned Newa, referring to the discrimination, as an worker scooped containers of takeout biryani.
Wong mentioned the federal government had additionally failed to speak successfully with South Asian residents, resulting in confusion in regards to the lockdown. The authorities later mentioned it had despatched translators. Other residents mentioned the federal government had offered meals that was not culturally applicable, resembling pork to Muslims.
Still, Newa mentioned he supported the lockdown. Though he had misplaced cash, controlling the outbreak was extra necessary, he mentioned.
Other enterprise homeowners agreed but in addition demanded compensation from the federal government.

Low Hung-kau, the proprietor of a nook stall, Shanghai Delicious Foods, mentioned he was pressured to discard substances he had ready upfront for steamed buns — an additional blow on prime of the drop in enterprise because the neighborhood outbreak started.
“I lost 60% of my business,” he mentioned. “Barely anyone comes by.”
He spent the day after the lockdown rallying neighboring enterprise homeowners to name on the federal government to pay no less than a part of their losses over the weekend. Government officers have dodged questions on compensation, saying solely that they hoped employers wouldn’t deduct the salaries of workers who had missed work.

Activists have criticized the federal government all through the pandemic for its reduction efforts, noting that it didn’t supply unemployment help. In addition, a lot of the federal government’s support has been focused at employers slightly than workers. Some firms have utilized for subsidies in return for protecting workers on the payroll, then reneged on that pledge.
Some had little alternative however to work by means of the lockdown, regardless of the dangers.

Ho Lai-ha, a 71-year-old road cleaner, mentioned she had swept roads and cleared sewers over the weekend, simply days after they had been cited as potential sources of contamination.
“I’m a bit scared, but there’s no other way,” she mentioned as she dunked a duster into an open grate Monday. “The area was locked down, but our work continues.”