Society

The Consumer Council has received 20 complaints against overseas removal companies in the first seven months of this year, as the number of people emigrating overseas soared.   Most of them related to last-minute price increases, hidden charges or delivery delays. The government has no official estimates on the number of people who have emigrated, but the latest population tally suggests that there was a net outflow of 89,200 people between mid-2020 and 2021. By mid-2021, the city had 7,394,700 people, or 1.2% less than a year ago.   The consumer watchdog advises people relocating overseas to watch out for hidden surcharges after an undercover investigation by the council found that shipping charges quoted by relocators varied by a great deal.   The investigation involved Consumer Council staff members posing as customers to ask for quotations of the costs of shipping to London in Britain and Toronto in Canada.   Of the 14 relocators that responded, the quoted charges for shipping 40 to 50 boxes to London ranged from $20,000 to $50,000.   Half of them did not remind consumers that the actual charges may be different from the estimates, and a similar number of companies said they would charge extra fees if the boxes had to be carried upstairs, though some were unclear about the charging scales.   For shipping to Toronto, although eight of the 11 responding companies took the initiative to tell customers that the final charges may be different from the quotations, most of them said it was  difficult to provide a precise delivery time and the cost of upstairs unloading.   Besides, most companies said it was difficult to accurately determine when the goods could be shipped and when they would arrive, said Nora Tam Fung-Yee, chairman of the council’s Research and Testing Committee.   …

More than 600,000 people in Macau have three days to get a Covid test or they may lose access to public transport. There have been long lines outside 41 Covid testing centres since 9 a.m this morning. The move came after a family of four tested positive for the Delta variant. A girl in the family visited Xi’an recently on a school trip. She and two people who sat next to her on a flight to Zhuhai all tested positive. Failure of an online booking system caused further chaos. Some people who thought they had booked a test showed up only to find there was no record of their booking. Xiao Heiwu, a senior high student told The Young Reporter that the queue stretched outside Macao Federation of Trade Unions Workers Stadium where she was waiting for her test. “I booked the test online, but I still needed to wait for an hour,” she said “People had to wait in the rain,” she added. People wait for their Covid test in the rain outside Macao Federation of Trade Unions Workers Stadium. (Video provided by Xiao Heiwu)   Jenny, a student from the University of Macau who didn’t provide her full name, said in a phone interview that she stood in line for over three hours to get tested. “Such a large number of people (should be tested) in such a short period of time,” she said. “Queues are inevitable.”   Macau health authorities announced last night that the health code on everyone’s mobile phone would change to blue from 9 a.m. today, indicating they must get a test. The code was supposed to turn green once a person tests negative. But those who do not get a test within three days will get a yellow health code, which means they …

The Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus has yesterday spread to 15 provinces and municipalities on the mainland since it was first detected on July 20 in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province in eastern China. As local authorities try to stem the outbreak, lockdowns and travel restrictions have been imposed in many parts of the country. In the latest development, Wuhan in Hubei province, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak that started in late 2019, will begin testing its 11 million people, after seven locally transmitted cases have been recorded.  In Zhangjiajie, the scenic city in Hunan province in central China known for its spectacular landscape, both local residents and tourists have been barred from leaving, after 13 confirmed infections were identified.   In Nanjing, the population has been put through three rounds of COVID-19 tests. Lukou district was designated a high-risk area and 31 nearby districts medium-risk, according to local media reports. So far, the city has recorded 220 confirmed cases of infection, of which six are classified as severe. Thousands of citizens who reside in medium and high-risk areas have been quarantined in hotels, while others were told to refrain from going out.  As shopping malls and supermarkets in some areas were forced to close, buses and trains have also changed their routes to avoid passing through high-risk areas.  Despite these preventive measures, the city is not under a full lockdown and most people still need to go to work.   Guo Guanchu, a student of Southeast University, said people in the city did not find the current wave of infection frightening.  “The impact of the pandemic on Nanjing is decreasing, but it is having a bigger impact on the whole country,” he said, referring to the rising number of infections across the country.  But travel restrictions imposed to …