The Pulse：Wuhan pneumonia & discussion with doctor Owen Tsang of HA's Infectious Disease Centre & ne

On the last day of 2019, mainland Chinese state media broke the news that a mysterious form of pneumonia had been spotted in Wuhan. The first case, it said, presented on 12th December. Here in Hong Kong the winter flu season tends to be at its worst between January and March, and apart from the major public health concerns, the virus is already placing more pressure on our strained public hospitals. Joining me to talk about what we know about the new virus so far is Owen Tsang, Medical Director of the Hospital Authority Infectious Disease Centre.

Early last month, Chief Executive Carrie Lam held a meeting with ten defeated district councillors from the Federation of Trade Unions and apologised for their seismic losses in last November’s district council election. It was reported that she also promised them they’d be appointed to other government committees. A week or so later, she also met another group of former pro-establishment councillors at Government House to thank them for their service. While the CE was talking to those who were licking their wounds, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung tried to arrange a meeting at the beginning of the year with the newly elected, mostly pro-democrat, councillors. Instead, he was met with a mass boycott by over 200 of them, including members of the Democratic Party, the Civic Party and the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood. This week, many district councils held their first meetings since the November elections. Seventeen out of eighteen district councils are now dominated by pro-democrat councillors, mostly much younger than previous office holders. Is that going to be a game changer? In part two we look at the work of one new district council in Tuen Mun.