Hong Kong yesterday scrapped a plan to make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for foreign domestic workers after the proposal sparked an outcry and a diplomatic tussle with the Philippines.
Health officials planned to roll out mandatory inoculations for the 370,000 domestic workers in the territory, mostly poorly paid women from the Philippines and Indonesia.
Those wanting to apply for a work visa — or renew their visa — would need to show they had received two doses of vaccine, but Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) yesterday announced a U-turn.
Photo: AP
“The government has decided not to request mandatory vaccination when helpers renew their contracts,” Lam said, adding that the decision had been made after meetings with officials from the Philippines and Indonesia.
Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin had previously said that the proposal “smacked of discrimination.”
Hong Kong health officials announced the mandatory vaccination plan after two domestic workers were found to be infected with one of the more virulent strains of COVID-19.
They said domestic workers were “high risk” because they often work with the elderly and meet in parks on Sundays — usually their one day off each week.
Labor groups representing domestic workers said they felt they were being singled out, adding that the families they worked for — as well as locals working in environments such as care homes — were not required to get vaccinated.
They also said that wealthier foreign migrants such as the territory’s white-collar financial workers were not being forced to get vaccines when outbreaks were traced to their districts.
Thanks to strict quarantine measures and economically painful social distancing regulations, Hong Kong has kept infections to just under 12,000 cases and 210 deaths.
It has secured ample vaccine doses, but the take-up has been very low.
So far just 16 percent of the territory’s 7.5 million people have received one or more doses of vaccine, a long way from the 60 to 70 percent considered necessary for herd immunity.
Regular polling shows Hong Kongers have some of the lowest support ratings for inoculation in the world.
Some of Hong Kong’s Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines pass their shelf-life in September and officials fret that they could be in the unenviable position of throwing away good doses.
The vaccination drive has been hampered by the Hong Kong government’s low popularity rating.
After huge democracy protests exploded in 2019, Hong Kong’s unpopular unelected leaders — with the backing of Beijing — have overseen a sweeping crackdown on dissent in the territory.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was