Hong Kong postpones chief election amid COVID-19 outbreak | Wellness and Exercise

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam mentioned Friday the election will be delayed six weeks from March 27 due to the fact keeping the polls as originally scheduled would pose “public health and fitness risks” even if a committee of only 1,462 people is included.

Hong Kong’s leader is elected by a committee created up of legislators, representatives of numerous industries and professions, and professional-Beijing reps this kind of as Hong Kong deputies to the Chinese nationwide parliament.

Many candidates including movie producer Checkley Sin and Titus Wu, a former member of Hong Kong’s largest professional-institution political occasion, have confirmed their intention to run. It is not obvious if Lam will operate for reelection.

Lam also claimed there had been programs to test the total town of Hong Kong for COVID-19, but denied that it would be set below a stringent lockdown even as the town pursues a “zero COVID” strategy.

“Mandatory tests and a total town lockdown may perhaps not have to have to go hand in hand. It depends on the real scenario,” she reported. “In our situation, owning examined the exceptional scenario in Hong Kong, we are going to probably just go for common screening of everybody, but screening a lot more periods.”

She cited as an case in point Macao, which has tested its complete population twice for the virus.

Well being authorities mentioned Thursday that the city’s hospitals ended up at 90% capability and that its isolation facilities have been comprehensive. Hong Kong’s everyday new conditions exceeded 2,000 for the first time on Monday. On Friday, over 3,600 new community infections were being claimed.

Hong Kong has aligned by itself with mainland China’s stringent “zero-COVID” plan that requires quarantining incoming tourists, total lockdowns, in depth contact tracing and mass testing of thousands and thousands of folks.

Lam has stuck to the exact same technique even with the city’s better inhabitants density, bigger incomes and a lot more company-oriented financial system than in mainland China. Past 7 days, the complete upscale Discovery Bay community in Hong Kong was ordered to undertake tests right after authorities uncovered traces of the virus in its sewage.

This story corrects that quite a few persons have reported they will run in the election, not just 1.