HONG KONG – When 60-year-old Shirley Leung wakes up in the first shutdown of the coronavirus in Hong Kong, she examines the small room she shares with her adult son, which fits into a single bed and cardboard boxes and plastic bins to store clothes .
She tries to ignore the smell of the ceiling and walls, which are covered with mold. She rationed the fresh vegetables she had at home, dissatisfied with the canned food and instant noodles provided by the government when he imposed the restrictions on Saturday. She considers the cramped, interconnected nature of her apartment building.
“If one room is contaminated, then how is it possible that cases do not spread among subdivided apartments?” Meung Leung said in a telephone interview. “How can it be safe?”
Hong Kong has long been one of the most uneven places on earth, a city where sleek luxury shopping malls sit shoulder to shoulder with overcrowded homes where the bathroom is sometimes also kitchen. In normal times, that inequality is often obscured by the glittering surface of the city. But during the coronavirus pandemic, its cost became unmistakable.
More than 160 confirmed cases were found in the Jordan region from January 1 to the end of last week, out of about 1,100 nationwide. The government responded by locking up 10,000 residents in a 16-block area. More than 3,000 workers, many in dangerous costumes, flocked to the area to conduct mass tests.
Hong Kong CEO Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that the closure was a success, adding that there would be more to come; officials announced shortly thereafter one in nearby Yau Ma Tei.
Officials have suggested that the deplorable living conditions of many Jordanians have fueled the spread of the virus. Jordan is a dense sequence with a vibrant night market, outdated high-rise apartments and numerous eateries. It is home to some of the highest concentrations of homes in the city. .
More than 200,000 of the city’s poorest residents live in such units, where the average living space per person is 48 square feet – less than one-third the size of a New York parking lot. Some spaces are so small and confined that they are called cages or chests.
The same conditions that possibly led to the outbreak also made the closure very painful for many residents, who were worried that they would miss even a day of work, or feared that they would be trapped in poorly ventilated hot water tanks. Officials admitted that they do not know exactly how many people live in the subdivided apartments, which makes the attempts to test everyone more complicated. Discrimination against low-income South Asian residents, many of whom are concentrated in the area, has also caused problems.
Some blamed the government for allowing the conditions for an outbreak to be supported and then imposing heavy measures on a group that could least afford it. Wealthy Hong Kongers caused their own or bad rules for social distance, without similar consequences.
“If they did anything wrong, it was to be poor, to live in a subdivided apartment or to have a different skin color,” said Andy Yu, an elected official in the closing area.
Since the pandemic began, subdivided apartments have been a source of concern.
Me. Leung, the retiree, and her son have only one bed, in which she sleeps at night and her son sleeps during the day, after returning as an overnight construction worker. A roof beam showed cracks, but the landlord put it off to fix it, she said. The mold is also an ongoing problem due to dirty water dripping from a neighboring unit.
The plumbing work in subdivided flats is often re-installed to allow for more bathrooms or kitchens, but the installation is often faulty. During the SARS outbreak in 2002-03, more than 300 people were infected in one dwelling, and 42 died after the virus spread through defective plumbing.
The government promised reforms after SARS, but acknowledged that the situation remained dangerous.
“Many of the buildings in the restricted area are older and in disrepair,” Sophia Chan, the secretary of food and health, said Saturday. “The risk of infection in the community is very high.”
The closure eventually lasted only two days, until Sunday at midnight, when the government said it had successfully tested most residents of the area. Thirteen people tested positive.
According to experts, the government has failed to address the underlying issues.
Wong Hung, co-director of the Institute for Health Equality at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the government did not adequately regulate subdivided apartments.
“They are afraid that if they do something, there is no place for such low-income families,” Professor Wong said. Hong Kong’s real estate market is widely regarded as the world’s cheapest.
Income inequality in Hong Kong is also closely intertwined with ethnicity, and the pandemic has exacerbated the long-standing discrimination against South Asian residents, who make up about 1 percent of the city’s population. Nearly a third of South Asian families with children in Hong Kong fall below the poverty line, according to government data, almost double the share for all families.
Many South Asians live in and around Jordan, including subdivided apartments, and as the virus has spread, some locals have begun accusing it of unhygienic behavior.
Raymond Ho, a senior health official, became indignant last week when he suggested that Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities fuel the transfer because ‘they like to share food, smoke, drink alcohol and chat.’ Mrs. Lam, the city’s leader, later said the government did not suggest the spread of the disease was linked to ethnicity.
Sushil Newa, the owner of a brightly painted Nepalese restaurant in the closing zone, showed on his phone screenshots of commentators comparing his community to animals and suggesting that they are alcoholics.
“We just work hard here and pay taxes, so why are we isolated from Hong Kong?” the mr. Newa said, referring to the discrimination, while an employee scooped out containers with takeaway Biryani.
Professor Wong said the government had also failed to communicate effectively with South Asian residents, leading to confusion over the closure. The government later said they had sent translators. Other residents said the government provided food that was not culturally suitable, such as pork, to Muslims.
Mr. Newa nevertheless said he supports the closure. Although he lost money, it was more important to control the outbreak.
Other business owners agreed, but also demanded compensation from the government.
Low Hung-kau, owner of a corner stall, Shanghai Delicious Foods, said he was forced to throw away ingredients he had previously prepared for steamed sandwiches – an extra blow on top of the drop in business since the outbreak of the environment.
“I lost 60 percent of my business,” he said. “Hardly anyone passes by.”
He spent the day after the closure to rally neighboring business owners to urge the government to pay at least part of their losses over the weekend. Government officials evaded questions about compensation, only saying they hope employers do not deduct the salaries of employees who missed jobs.
Activists criticized the government for its assistance throughout the pandemic, pointing out that it did not offer unemployment assistance. In addition, much of the government’s assistance is aimed at employers rather than employees. Some companies have applied for subsidies in exchange for keeping employees on the payroll, and then again from the promise.
Some had little choice but to work through the exclusion despite the risks.
Ho Lai-ha, a 71-year-old street cleaner, said she swept roads and cleaned sewage over the weekend, days after it was cited as possible sources of pollution.
“I’m a little scared, but there’s no other way,” she said as she dipped a speck of dust into an open grate on Monday. “The area was closed, but our work continues.”