Hong Kong shows no need for total lockdown: study

With widespread testing contact tracing and population behavioural changes Hong Kong appears to have managed to contain the first wave of COVID19 withoutresorting to drastic measures like complete lockdown which now threaten to damage economies of several countries around the world say scientists in a Lancet studyA combination of border entry restrictions quarantine and isolation of cases and contacts together with some degree of social distancing helped the city with a 75 million population avert a major COVID19 outbreak up to March 31 said the study published in The Lancet Public Health journalBy quickly implementing public health measures Hong Kong has demonstrated that the virus transmission can be effectively contained without resorting to the highly disruptive complete lockdown said professor Benjamin Cowling from the University of Hong Kong who led the researchOther governments can learn from the success of Hong Kong If these measures and population responses can be sustained they could substantially lessen the impactThe government also deployed measures to encourage social distancing including flexible working arrangements and school closures Many largescale events were also cancelledFurther analyses suggest that individual behaviours have changed in response to COVID19 In the most recent survey 85 per cent of respondents reported avoiding crowded places and 99 per cent reported wearing face masks when leaving homemdashup from 75 per cent and 61 per cent respectively from the first survey in JanuaryS Korea virus cases fall below 20 in 2 monthsSEOUL South Korea reported 18 COVID19 cases on Saturday marking the lowest daily increase in about two months The new cases brought the countrys total infections to 10653 according to the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention It is the first time since February 20 that the countrys new infections came below 20 Over the past five days the country reported fewer than 30 new patients per day The number of South Koreas daily new cases reached a peak of 909 confirmed cases on February 29 but the country has since managed to flatten the curveIran closer to containmentIranian authorities have said that they were closer to the containment of the COVID19 pandemic in most of the country while Turkey was poised to overtake Iran as the hardesthit country in the Middle East due to rapid growth of new casesIran on Friday reported 1499 new cases of COVID19 bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 79494 with 4958 deaths Despite circumstances arising from sanctions and economic warfare no patient was left abandoned behind hospital doors and no patient lacked drugs and medical care during the peak of the virus across cities minister of health and medical education Saeed Namaki said In Turkey 4353 newCOVID19 cases were confirmed on Friday bringing the total number to 78546 The death toll surged to 1769 after 126 more deaths were reportedCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest newsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever