Last Thursday, I shadowed a Hong Kong community organization called “Y.Elites” that has been in the thick of the action of the pandemic fight, linking arms with local services to distribute supplies to society’s most vulnerable.
That day, there were three vans, half a dozen drivers, all members of Y.Elites, including its chairman, Clarence Ling, and two elderly care homes to visit.
Omicron has torn through elderly care homes in the city since last February. Thousands of residents and staff members have been infected, hundreds of deaths, most of whom were unvaccinated. It had gotten so serious that the government had decided to create a “closed-loop system”, and all residents of care homes were required to receive their first dose of the vaccine by March 18.
“Y. Elites has 1,200 members, from different backgrounds, different professions, and we decided to create ‘Love Car Fleet’, a fleet of cars that transports supplies, medicine, even doctors and nurses, in-sync with hospitals and other facilities”, said Clarence.
I had met Clarence once before; a tech investor, and an election committee member, he’s often immersed in work, so I was quite amazed when he told me that it was their 18th straight day of delivering cargo around the city.
After helping load the boxes of provisions from a warehouse into the vans, we drove to the site on Kowloon side. Specifically, we unloaded the boxes and brought them to a drop-off site just downstairs from the care home, where staff members waiting to receive them told us that there were currently 30 cases of infections upstairs. I was saddened to hear that, and quietly relieved that the “closed-loop” system was in place.
Chinese mainland support to the city has been vast, from resources to expertise, and has included elderly care homes with over 1,000 care workers coming from across the border to assist in the short-staffed elderly homes. At one point, more than 70 percent of elderly homes had infections in the city as of early March.
Before embarking on the second leg of the day’s initiative, we all thoroughly hosed each other down with disinfection spray cannisters. At a time when spirits in the city are admittedly low, and social measures strictly in place to rein in the cases, it was uplifting to see this tight-knit community group consolidate their resources to do their part. I was reminded of Rudyard Kipling’s beloved ‘Law of the Jungle’, the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”
Jason Lee, treasurer of Y.Elites who also ran a family business, told me that he was naturally concerned about the health risks in doing this initiative every day, as his daughter has just turned 1 year old, despite the ample precautionary measures they all took.
“We’ll probably continue this initiative everyday until we’re not needed anymore and cases are under control, which is hopefully sooner than later,” said Jason. Like Clarence, he too had bags under his eyes from exhaustion.
After much coordination on the phone with relevant facility staff members at the next site, we drove off to the second elderly care home in Kennedy Town, where a similar drop-off downstairs from the building was made to a grateful care home staff.
Clarence looked down at his phone to see how other members of the fleet were holding up around the city. He looked up at me with a tired smile, “Next week, we’re aiming to bring supplies to 10,000 families.”
I had reservations before joining the operation that day. Would it be worth risking getting infected and possibly spreading the virus further? However, after hearing how the drivers were risking even more, by doing it every day, and with youngsters back home, I was humbled. They took copious precautionary steps, including self-testing multiple times a day. As for whether it was worth it; the reactions of the care home staff summed up the answer in a resounding “yes”.
It was a heartening experience for me. At a time when everything seems overwhelming, in the darkest hour of the fifth wave, here is this community group coming together in cohesion with the city’s anti-pandemic services.
Kipling’s law of the jungle holds. The resilience of the city remains strong.
