Hong Kong will scrap its mandatory isolation rule for people infected with COVID-19 from Jan. 30 as part of its strategy to return the southern Chinese city to normalcy, the city’s leader said on Thursday.
For most of the pandemic over the last three years, Hong Kong has aligned itself with China’s “zero-COVID” strategy, requiring those who tested positive to undergo quarantine. Many residents once had to be sent to hospitals or government-run quarantine facilities even when their symptoms were mild.
Currently, infected persons are allowed to isolate at home for a minimum of five days and can go out once they test negative for two consecutive days.
Chief Executive John Lee told lawmakers he made the decision based partly on the city’s high vaccination and infection rates, saying the local community has a strong “immunity barrier.”
“As most infected persons only suffer mild symptoms, the government should shift from a clear-cut, mandatory approach to one that allows residents to make their own decisions and take their own responsibilities when we manage the pandemic,” he said.
He said it is a step all countries make on their paths to normalcy and that Hong Kong has reached this stage now, adding that the city’s pandemic situation had not worsened after it started to reopen its border with mainland China about two weeks ago.
Hong Kong, which once had some of the world’s strictest COVID-19 rules, has been easing various restrictions to revive its economy, including removing an isolation rule for close contacts of those who tested positive for COVID-19 and vaccination requirements to enter certain venues.
The Florida Agency of Healthcare Administration last week warned healthcare providers not to distribute abortion pills, according to the Sun Sentinel.
The agency sent an email that read, “The Agency issues this alert to remind providers that they must continue to comply with Florida laws that govern the performance of abortions,”
The move comes after the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to allow retail pharmacies, like Walgreens or CVS, to stock and dispense Mifepristone, more commonly known as abortion pills, in states that allow the procedure.
Before, abortion pills would either be directly administered by a doctor, or prescribed via telemedicine and mailed directly to the patient, depending on state law.
In Florida, abortion is legal until 15 weeks of gestation, and only a physician can terminate a pregnancy after a 24-hour waiting period. Florida pharmacists are not allowed to distribute the pills.
In its email, the Florida agency’s alert made clear that willfully violating the abortion laws could result in criminal penalties and that the state would refer “any evidence of criminal activity” to local law enforcement.
Mifepristone, a two-pill regiment, differs from Plan B, also known as the morning-after pill, which is widely available at Florida pharmacies and considered more of an emergency contraceptive.
The announcement Saturday was the first official death toll since the ruling Communist Party abruptly dropped anti-virus restrictions in December despite a surge in infections that flooded hospitals. That left the WHO and other governments appealing for information, while the United States, South Korea and others imposed controls on visitors from China.
The government said 5,503 people died of respiratory failure caused by COVID-19 and there were 54,435 fatalities from cancer, heart disease and other ailments combined with COVID-19 between Dec. 8 and Jan. 12.
The announcement “allows for a better understanding of the epidemiological situation,” said a WHO statement. It said the WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, talked by phone with Health Minister Ma Xiaowei.
“WHO requested that this type of detailed information continued to be shared with us and the public,” the agency said.
The National Health Commission said only deaths in hospitals were counted, which means anyone who died at home wouldn’t be included. It gave no indication when or whether it might release updated numbers.
A health official said the “national emergency peak has passed” based on an 83% decline in the daily number of people going to fever clinics from a Dec. 23 high.
The report would more than double China’s official COVID-19 death toll to 10,775 since the disease was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019. China has counted only deaths from pneumonia or respiratory failure in its official toll, which excludes many fatalities that might be attributed to the virus in other countries.
Meanwhile, high-speed train service resumed Sunday between China’s mainland and Hong Kong under restrictions that allow 5,000 passengers from each side to make the trip daily and require a negative virus test within the previous 48 hours.
The two sides are reopening travel links that were suspended under Beijing’s “zero-COVID” strategy, which aimed to keep the virus out of China. Hong Kong imposed different but similarly severe restrictions that blocked most international travel.
Candice Zhong, a resident of the neighboring mainland city of Shenzhen who arrived in Hong Kong, said she planned to visit the city’s two major theme parks.
“I want to come to Hong Kong to see what it’s like now,” Zhong said at the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway terminal. “I will go to Disneyland and Ocean Park.”
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Associated Press video producer Alice Fung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
China on Saturday reported nearly 60,000 deaths in people who had COVID-19 since early December following complaints the government was failing to release data about the status of the pandemic.
The death toll included 5,503 deaths due to respiratory failure caused by COVID-19 and 54,435 fatalities from other ailments combined with COVID-19. The National Health Commission said those deaths occurred in hospitals, which left open the possibility more people also might have died at home.
The report would more than double China’s official COVID-19 death toll to 10,775. The official toll stood at 5,272 on Jan. 8.
The Chinese government stopped reporting data on COVID-19 infections and deaths in early December after abruptly lifting anti-virus controls. The World Health Organization and other governments appealed to Beijing for more information amid a surge in infections.
A health care organization is partnering with a Central Florida Midwife to get results for uninsured and underinsured pregnant women, using an unexpected tool: a bus.
It’s called The Midwife Bus and it’s a one-stop-shop for expectant mothers to get the prenatal and postpartum care they need. It’s a maternity clinic on wheels with couches in the waiting room, an exam room with an exam chair, ultrasound machine, lab work capabilities and more. (Yes, this all fits on the bus.)
Owner Brooke Schmoe is a licensed midwife who had a vision to improve access to prenatal care for those who are uninsured or underinsured.
“Just breaking down barriers when there’s nobody who’s doing that for these people. It’s not good for the community because these babies may not thrive as well because they are not set up with good preventative care and community resources and they struggle,” Schmoe said.
Schmoe founded The Midwife Bus in 2018, leaving the maternity clinic she worked at to take her midwifery on the road. She got a hold of a 40-foot formally retired bloodmobile, then applied for a grant through Orlando Health to get the wheels rolling.
“One of the appealing things about Brooke’s care is that she wanted to take prenatal care to the patient, versus waiting for the patient to come to clinics and the hospital. Some people have a hard time accessing hospitals and clinics and there is a need for this service,” said Suzanne Worthington, president of Orlando Health Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies.
With a grant from Orlando Health and donations, Schmoe converted the bus into a mobile maternity clinic. The Midwife Bus has been serving families in Osceola County since 2020, now she’s expanding services to Orange County, in the Holden Heights neighborhood.
The locations for where The Midwife Bus goes are identified through a community needs assessment. Schmoe has an ultrasound tech, certified nurse midwife and office manager as part of her staff, with consulting OBs. For patients who are uninsured, The Midwife Bus charges based on income so no one gets turned away.
The exam room on The Midwife Bus
Maxime Karman was halfway through her pregnancy before she met Schmoe in 2020, saying other maternity clinics wouldn’t accept her insurance.
“Not having a midwife to check the baby was really hard for me and not really knowing what to do to make myself feel better. It was definitely a journey. Once I found Brooke and found the bus, the whole pregnancy turned around and felt like a positive experience,” Karman said. “It gives me hope because when I realized how hard it was to get prenatal care, it was very discouraging. “
The Midwife Bus provided maternity care for Karman through the rest of her pregnancy. Karman gave birth to her daughter Zoa.
Maxime and Zoa with grandma.
“She definitely goes above and beyond, for me. She’s a hero. I think she’s saving a lot of people and making things a lot easier for them and you don’t find a lot of that in the world,” Karman said.
Schmoe said the care she offers is more than just medical-based.
“What has been an even bigger part of it is just the social support. Having people who look fine on the outside and they come in here and open up about things that cause them a great amount of stress and talking to them. I like to make sure they are doing OK mentally, not just physically and being there for them emotionally,” Schmoe said. “It’s a huge gap in our system and it’s unfair but I can also see the flip side too because the liability is huge taking on people who can’t pay or who haven’t had care their whole pregnancy. It’s just a broken system. I’m not trying to do a complete overhaul of the system but just creating a life raft where I can create change in my circle of influence.”
The bus can be found parked every Monday at the Grand Avenue Neighborhood Center located at 800 Grand Street, Orlando, FL, 32805.
This is the bus’s fourth location and was methodically chosen to give patients in the Parramore community with limited or no transportation resources a better opportunity to get to and from the mobile clinic. With the addition of a new clinician, Schmoe and the Midwife Bus’s expanded services now span two counties, providing crucial care to women in several communities.
Total Doses Distributed = 947,249,345. Total Doses Administered = 666,511,603. Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses = 268,556,888. Number of People Fully Vaccinated = 229,359,062.
