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Written by: Guo Wende
2020-04-07 14:00
Date of last update: 2020-04-07 14:00At the end of last month, the government formally issued the "Limitation Order", that is, the "Prevention and Control of Diseases (Regulations and Instructions) (Business and Premises) Regulations made by the Chief Executive in Council under Article 8 of the" Prevention and Control of Diseases Ordinance ". Regulations (hereinafter referred to as the "Business and Premises Regulations") and the "Prevention and Control of Diseases (Prohibition of Group Aggregation) Regulations" (hereinafter referred to as the "Prohibition of Group Aggregation Regulations"), but has since been promulgated and Relevant amendments and instructions were updated to change the scope of influence and regulatory restrictions of the "restriction order", which caused public criticism that officials had not considered well before implementing the measures, resulting in more than one correction and relief after the event, plugging the epidemic prevention loopholes .
The "Business and Premises Regulations", which was gazetted on March 27, allows the Secretary for Food and Health to issue instructions to regulate or restrict the operation mode and business hours of two types of objects for no more than 14 days: the first type is "catering "Business", the second type is the "Game Center", "Commercial Bathroom", "Fitness Center", "Playground", "Public Entertainment Place", and "Party Room" listed in Part 1 of Schedule 2. Item "listed premises", and on the day the regulations are announced, the Secretary has also issued an instruction requesting the "catering business" to halve the seats, the table must be 1.5 meters apart and less than four people sitting together, to measure the temperature of the customers and provide disinfection Hand lotion, as well as requiring "listed premises" to be closed for two weeks from March 28. It is worth noting that this regulation actually allows the Secretary to gazette a "specified period" not longer than 14 days, prohibiting all "catering businesses" from supplying dine-in meals, but in hospitals, nursing homes, treatment centers, boarding schools, Operators of government premises or private residences are exempted, but as of last week, the government has not exercised this power.
As for the Regulation on the Prohibition of Group Gathering, the Director of Food and Drug Administration gazetted a "specified period" of no longer than 14 days, which prohibits any gathering of more than four people in public places. The organizer and the person in charge of the place where the gathering is allowed must pay a fixed fine of HK $ 2,000 within 21 days, otherwise "there will be a fine at level 4 and imprisonment for 6 months", but for transportation, work, medical treatment, trial, Marriage and funeral and other 12 targets listed in the table can be exempted from gathering (Table 1). Public officials authorized by the Director of Health can request multiple gatherings within 1.5 meters of each other to dissolve, and have the right to request personal information, access identification, make necessary orders, use reasonable force, enter and inspect places, and even be able to request the public The person in charge of the venue shall hand over documents, articles or materials related to the gathering activity. The Regulation on the Prohibition of Group Aggregation was published in the Gazette on March 28, and the first "specified period" that prohibited the aggregation of groups was announced from March 29 to April 11.
Standards lack science and give priority to enforcement according to the provisions
Both the "Business and Premises Regulations" and the "Prohibition of Group Aggregation Regulations" both use 1.5 meters and four people as the appropriate distance and maximum number of people to judge "restriction", and when Chief Executive Lin Zheng Yue'e was asked at the press conference When the relevant standards were formulated, she replied: "In fact, there is no scientific basis for the regulation of mass gatherings ... In Hong Kong, we feel that four people are more suitable, because someone just asked It seems too harsh for three or four people to let them work together; ten people may be too many, because ten people sit together at a table to eat, we are very worried about cross-infection. In these relatively small indoors in Hong Kong In places where there are certain people sitting together, but at a certain distance, maybe four people is a more suitable number, so we chose not to exceed four people as the upper limit of mass gathering. "This paragraph is full of" possible The interpretation of "directly contradicts her earlier statement that all anti-epidemic decisions should be" based on science and theory. "
On March 27, the government promulgated new regulations prohibiting the gathering of more than four people in public places. (Li Zetong / photo)
Ironically, the day before the "Limited Congregation Order" was promulgated (March 26), the Journal of the American Medical Association just published the latest report of Associate Professor Lydia Bourouiba of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In a research paper, she first cited the past experimental results of her group to prove that the "turbulent gas cloud" generated by sneezing or coughing of infected people can spread droplets up to 23 to 27 feet (about 7 to 8 meters) ), And then quoted a recent Chinese doctor ’s report that the virus particles can be found in the ventilation system of the ward of patients with new coronary pneumonia. At present, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) only recommend that people maintain a social distance of 3 to 6 feet (about 1 to 2 meters). Lü Diya believes that they "have not considered that there may be long-distance droplets. "High momentum gas cloud"; as for the surgical masks and N95 masks currently widely used by Hong Kong people, she also proposed that these masks have not been tested so far to withstand the high momentum multiple turbulent gas clouds generated by sneezing or coughing. It can be seen from this that the 1.5-meter distance set by the "Limitation Order" is scientifically untenable.
If we read the contents of the "Limitation Restriction Order" again, it is not difficult to find that the standard setting of the provisions seems to be just for the convenience of meeting the needs of law enforcement. Taking several types of group gatherings exempted from the "Group Gathering Prohibition Regulation" as an example, would it be better to walk together in an enclosed space such as a vehicle, work place or court with a group of more than four other people within a distance of less than 1.5 meters? Is it safe on the streets of Jan? The special wedding ceremony also deliberately indicated that it is acceptable to accept "a group gathering of no more than 20 people." This disguise recognizes that the standard of four people is not for epidemic prevention. In addition, the Regulation on the Prohibition of Group Aggregation itself was announced a few hours later than the Business and Location Regulation. Lin Zhengyue claimed at a press conference that this reflected the work of the Law Drafting Commissioner in the "race for time", but the result was about 6,000 words. More than half of it is spent in the Schedule "Fixed Penalty" to explain the relevant procedures of the fine. The content of the provisions is mainly to detail the various search powers of authorized public officials (Table 2). The public is difficult to accept that the original government "competition" is to focus on this Above things.
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【New Coronary Pneumonia】 Limitation of the congregation makes the change of the day and night reflect the thinking defects of governance
The above excerpt is from the 208th issue of "Hong Kong 01" Weekly Newsletter (April 6, 2020) "Deconstruction of" Polymerization Order "Chaos Why Hong Kong's Epidemic Prevention Vulnerability Appears"
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