Hong Kong eases COVID-19 rules; Beijing still strict

Hong Kong increased the number of allowed people at tables in restaurants, stopped requiring masks for outdoor exercise, and opened pools and beaches Thursday. Beijing, on the other hand, announced Wednesday it would shut down 60 subway stations, closing about 15 percent of the system. Restaurants remain takeout-only, gyms are closed, and school is suspended for at least another week.

Is the pandemic slowing in those cities? In Hong Kong, a city of 7 million, the seven-day average of daily new cases has fallen to around 332 from 8,000 per day at the end of March, according to Worldometer. The number of COVID-19 cases in Beijing, a city of 26 million, has been on the rise during that time. The World Health Organization reported Thursday that about 15 million people have died from COVID-19 since December 2020. That number is much higher than the previous official count of 5.4 million deaths because it includes cases that were not previously reported and indirect deaths.

Dig deeper: Read Mark Tooley’s column in WORLD Opinions on what it’s like to be locked down in China.