On 21 Feb 2020, a riot policeman was confirmed to have nCoV. A few days prior, he developed a fever and was off work as a result, but still attended a retirement party hosted by his department against Department of Health advice to avoid crowded areas when unwell. His family have also been unwell but have since tested negative. A few of his colleagues were confirmed to also have symptoms on 22 Feb 2020 and are pending test results.

A lot of citizens are gleeful at the news because since June 2019, multiple clashes between protestors and riot police have resulted in many injured and several dead protestors amidst events of excessive violence, including open firing a gun at the chest of a teenager; calling protestors "cockroaches"; saying they "will open champagne" after arresting protestors; calling for a "repeat of the June 4th Incident" (the Tiananmen Square protest where students were literally crushed to death by tanks); multiple riot cops beating a single unarmed protestor; firing rubber bullets and teargas canisters at protestors' heads and blinding at least one non-protestor (a journalist); standing by doing nothing on 21 July 2019 when a group of triad members attacked peaceful protestors with metal poles; and claims of their participation in 'disappearing' members of the public who were then found in questionable circumstances, dead, their deaths claimed as 'non suspicious' 'suicides' -- amongst many, many things. It has been a very busy 8 months in Hong Kong. Netizens are praising karma and opening champagne. Police have openly condemned this 'cold-blooded act' of opening champagne.

We are having fewer admissions these days because most people are scared of COVID and of catching it from other patients in the hospital. Which gives us an idea just how abused the healthcare system is. We often have cases coming to A+E with complaints that are neither accidents nor emergencies, like wanting to skip the waiting time for a specialist appointment for a stable condition, missing a chemotherapy dose in mainland China and wanting HK hospitals to foot the bill and give him his meds (we said no, that's crazy), dizziness that's lasted for months and suddenly it became an urgent issue, or family members dumping their relatives in hospital for babysitting in absence of any illness. Almost all of those have disappeared with this surge, along with the few patients who have refused discharge (we had a case that stayed for eight months in a side room because he just refused to leave the hospital, and now he agreed for discharge because he was afraid of catching nCoV. Figures.) But that also means cases that come in are often super-ill and genuinely needing care.