Pageant Contestants Catch Covid

The pageant is postponed until contestants recover

Should we be surprised? The Miss Hong Kong Pageant was supposed to hold its semi-finals this coming Sunday, but has been postponed for now as five contestants have tested positive for Covid-19.

In addition hosts Eric Tsang Chi-wai and Fanny Ip Hoi-yan have tested positive too.

Tsang tested positive for Covid

This is the first time the annual event has been impacted by the virus. The previous two years TVB managed to hold the event with social-distancing restrictions.

It is unclear when the semi-finals will be held, though all contestants will be taking PCR tests, while rehearsals and promotional activities will be stopped for now.

On Monday Hong Kong recorded 8,488 new cases, of which 236 were imported.

Meanwhile with school starting soon, students and teachers are advised to start doing rapid antigen tests two days before the first day of school. They should also get their third jab. 

Kindergarten operators are lobbying the education minister Christine Choi Yuk-lin to not suspend face-to-face classes after she said the government might suspend whole-day classes if the number of cases surpasses 10,000.

Kindergartens hope to stay open this year

"These two to three years in the pandemic have been uncertain. Last year, classes kept pausing and resuming, our staff has already prepared for such changes... but the best is that classes are not affected," said Rosa Chow Wai-chun, president of the Early Childhood Educators Association.

Currently kindergartens can only hold half-day classes in person, though some operators arrange for half day classes and then the other half is "daycare".

It's tough to be a student during the pandemic. In-class learning is the best way to ensure students don't fall behind and develop the social skills they need to navigate the community they live in.

Meanwhile beauty pageants can wait. Hardly essential viewing...