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Opinion | Coronavirus outbreak: Hong Kong is facing a shortage of masks, toilet paper and leadership
- Hongkongers are scrambling to buy supplies while the Hong Kong government scrambles to respond to the public health crisis. A crisis is a real test of leadership – and the Carrie Lam administration seems to be failing
Reading Time:3 minutes
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Which came first: the inept administration of Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor or the crippling anti-government protests?
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This chicken-or-egg question is important as a novel strain of pandemonium erupts in Hong Kong. This is not the old strain, when our streets were turned into battlefields of lawless fury. This is the mutated version: a contagion of fear has gripped our city, and the uninfected masses put themselves at risk of contracting the new coronavirus by flocking to buy not just masks and rice, but also toilet paper.
This is an outrageous spectacle – almost as outrageous as the chief executive restricting the use of masks among government officials in non-frontline positions, so as to conserve the supply of masks for public health workers. Then there is the mystery of the missing masks: Lam earmarked masks produced by inmates in Lo Wu Correctional Institution for medical staff, and yet the Hospital Authority denied receiving those masks.
Unfortunately, this is the government Hong Kong has to live with these days.
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