Disabled Hong Kongers battle to obtain face masks amid COVID-19 panic-buying
19 February, 2020
Hong Kong's disabled occupants and their carers say they look and feel increasingly trapped within their apartments and abandoned by authorities as the coronavirus-struck city is engulfed with panic-buying and face mask shortages.
Going back fortnight, queues have sprung up over the densely packed business hub as Hong Kongers jostle for the most recent delivery of face masks, toilet rolls and cleaning items.
This is a free-for-all that Steven Yan dreads.
Identified as having muscular atrophy 14 years ago, Yan uses a wheelchair to get around.
He has tried to look for face masks close to his apartment but has only succeeded once within the last month, queuing for six time to get his practical five free masks.
Steven Yan has simply succeeded in getting masks once in the last month, immediately after queuing for six hours. (Picture: AFP/Philip FONG)
"It exhausted me personally," Yan told AFP. "I dared not approach, fearing that I would lose my spot."
With merely 40 masks in the home to share among him, his wife and teenage boy, Yan has started reducing on going out in public areas, including to his standard medical check-ups.
General public hospitals have stopped supplying masks to visiting patients to save essential equipment for staff on a city where a lot more than 60 people have been identified as having the coronavirus.
"I must wear a mask found in hospital but we can't afford that nowadays," Yan said, lamenting that charges for deal with masks have soared found in latest weeks as the federal government has resisted implementing value controls or rationing.
ENTRENCHED INEQUALITY
Despite being among the richest cities on the globe, Hong Kong includes a profound riches gap and a restricted back-up for society's most vulnerable.
Of the 600,000 disabled people in the town, a third live below the poverty line according to government data.
About 200,000 persons also become carers.
Lam Chun, 64, looks after her 19-year-aged nephew full time.
He has Pradar-Willis syndrome - a genetic disorder that makes the person come to feel constantly hungry and often leads to diabetes and obesity.
When she is out to get groceries, she uses makeshift cloth mask to covers her face, though it offers limited protection.
"I always skip the info on masks because I don't really know getting online," Lam said, noting just how many Hong Kongers learn about restocked pharmacies through Facebook or friends and family Whatsapp groups.
Both Yan and Lam said they had received little help from native authorities in securing masks.
"It proved that the government didn't do anything to safeguard persons like us and I am deeply disappointed," Lam said.
The Social Welfare Division did not respond to requests for touch upon what measures it had been taking to make sure disabled and different vulnerable residents received masks.
Responsibility has mainly fallen to volunteers and the charity sector.
FRAYED NERVES
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam recently said 1.6 million masks will be directed at local charities to hand out to vulnerable persons.
And Joshua Wong, a pro-democracy activist who was simply previously jailed for leading protests, said his get together had secured 1.2 million masks from Honduras and would distribute them through their network of neighborhood councillors.
There have been growing calls in a few sectors for the federal government to implement price caps or even to ration face masks in a bid to curb shortages and spiraling prices.
After a brief episode of panic buying in close by Taiwan, authorities introduced latest rules limiting each individual to purchasing just two masks weekly through a system linked to their national health card.
However in Hong Kong, which revels found in its free-market position, authorities have so far resisted market intervention.
Yan said he felt constantly anxious found in recent weeks.
"People like me personally are more vulnerable on face of diseases," he explained. "You may be hearing my voice today and seeing my corpse tomorrow."
Source:
TAG(s):