oh, so much different culture between here and there. so challenging for everything ah, to some of this i think it was worth it for me to come to germany. shove my got my license to work as a swimming instructor here. and issue now are teach children. adults to swim just what's your story? take part. share it on info, migrants dot net. ah. this is the w use asia coming up to date. the elderly are at highest risk of dying from cobra 19, but potters to convince to get vaccinated in china and hong kong. what happens when the island opens its borders to the mainland? my case is a surgeon. and the gamble with cove it in need by macau will tourists return to the

world's biggest gambling center because they haven't really come back yet. ah, i beg for sewland. welcome. how ready is asia full coverage? big chance to escape china once again. the world's most populous nation was cut off from the rest of the world for 3 years. now it's dropped locked downs. are the quarantine rules and mass testing. the virus is spreading, but the real numbers a hidden in even loses statistics astray. there is taking precautions announcing, testing for all travelers from china is australia's health minister or a key factor in my decision over the last couple of days was the view that the world health organization porter. i think on saturday that said that there was already an absence of comprehensive information about the situation in china. i

think people are particularly concerned about the lack of genomic sequencing being shared with the rest of the world. and that, that is the y m, which we identified a very early stage, the possibility of new variance of carved emerging. this is something that's pretty much shared in real time by other countries, but isn't being shared right now by china on information sharing and the real risk of covered, especially for hong kong. as i'll talk to a health expert in a moment. first, this report from d w's. phoebe cong on the pandemic, continuing thread to the elderly. missus, boy is getting ready to deliver some food to her husband at a home for the elderly. she used to visit him every day and 23 years ago. the pandemic put a stop to that. oh my god, i didn't, i brought him some this kids today and next and aided families are only allowed to leave the food at the entrance and let the staff pass it on. i can only talk to him over the phone is only one of

a variety of places in hong kong does do ban. i'm fascinated people until last week . mrs. wil couldn't go to restaurants or public markets. grocery shopping was also limited, like hundreds of thousands of senior citizens in the city. missus will stand firm against fascination. despite years long inconveniences and deadly outbreak last year. while she's a bit worried about catching cove, it, she is far more concerned by potential side effects of the jap or dog n g was and i, what if my body cannot handle the vaccine? i'm scared of the side effect, so it can't be undone. why? hello, not to mention, it doesn't guarantee 100 percent protection. why buffer about the severity of the disease depends on how strong people are to go go under. these hesitancy is also attributed to the novelty of cov, if that seems,

i mistrust of the authorities. 15 percent of hong kong or 60 years or older, remain and fascinated. and those who have gotten jap generally have had a domestically developed cove shot. the german late m r n. a vaccine is available in hong kong, but it's not a public option for the elderly here. many of them prefer the chinese like theme because they say it has mt a side effect. even if it's less effective in protecting against severe illness. as hong kong has lifted most of his cove at restrictions and prepares to fully open his thought over mainland china, concern over an influx of infections is growing. that's something mrs will has discussed with the relatives on the mainland us. well, i thought it said that cove, it can be treated as a cold. now i work for almost 3 years. she has spent most of her time at home,

missus will barely left her neighbourhood and cut off nearly all her social contexts to avoid infection. marathons long though, i'm not very anxious about the opening up. i am confident in my own immunity. yes is seldom get sick. but it's my freedom to choose not to get the jap. bah, i don't blame any one. if i contract the virus. i go to school, however, now may not be the best moment for her to lower her guard. hong kong is praising itself for an out of search of the corona virus. and let's talk to dale fisher, chair of the w h o 's global outbreak alert and response network. he joins us from singapore, with hong kong, reopening its borders to mainland china. how bad could the covered surge be? well 1st with all countries opening up their borders to china,

i think every country has to consider the potential threat both to its population and it's an a health system. the other 2 areas are concerned, so population is very well vaccinated, particularly the seniors and well boosted than really they should not be under particular threat from severe disease if the health system is strong and a lot of chinese travelers start accessing. and then of course, that could put a threat on the health system but, but really, it depends on, on how many infected travel is actually in the country that could cause that risk. and also the, the resilience of the country and the people itself will. hong kong is a travel hub and a lot of it see is not vaccinated yet. and this could cause a risk. we've seen this problem of seniors declining vaccination and singapore as

well as singapore, hong kong and, and china. and they're obviously at a greater risk of, of severe disease. but of course there's been more disease circulating in hong kong for a longer period. so they'll be a high level of natural immunity there. something is in hong kong, say they covered can now be treated as a cold. now that's at least the information they're getting. how true or false is that when you're in that elderly age bracket, i will con, exactly. be treated as a cold. it's obviously more infectious. so it can, can affect more people in a, in a short period of time. and it still has potential to cause to be in your mind. yes . so. so yes, you could argue that if you have cobra, you could stay home if you've got miles symptoms and perhaps isolate yourself or where a mosque if you, if you do have to go out and you've got symptoms. but, but still, if you get more severe complications such as just fine or,

or shortness of breath than, than really, that would be a reason to go to hospital and, and that sort of outcome was unlikely with a cold. so should people be more concerned about side effects of the vaccine or covered 19 itself? it sounds like conversation we had a year ago with, with the, with the rest of the world, doesn't it? and obviously the answers exactly the same that, that your risk is to be in diseases is about 110th if your back tonight and compared to and vaccinated. so. so definitely, of course, there are potential side effects, but the there will outweigh by the, the risk of disease in the young vaccinated, and particularly the elderly and immune compromised. and what's your take are the m r n a vaccines beto or the chinese ones? well again, the best fact, same as the one you can guess, but if you had the choice, i think most people would take the, the m,

r and back things because they have been shown to have improved efficacy against severe disease. but you know, we say that that wasn't really the choice so, so we could say high levels of severe disease because of taking a relatively less effective vaccine in your work. you target alertness and readiness for this virus and the soldiers in this fires. can you explain why it's been so hard to get the elderly vaccinated in hong kong and china, the age bracket at highest risk? you know, it was an interesting phenomenon, actually took us by surprise in singapore a little bit. and when we went round those people, the reasons were, were, know, 3 or 4 reasons. one was that i would just much more vitalistic and whatever happens that happens. and i'm just going to let nature take its course. of course that's what happens until you get sick,

then you rushed to hospital. but many people worried that it could affect other co morbidities upset their blood pressure or their heart disease, which of course, other people that would benefit more from the, from the back thing. so they're not, not good reasons, but it was a very culturally linked foundation if you like. and we saw it in singapore. then, hong kong, then china, in the, the sort of elderly china is quite different to the rest of the world. wouldn't help all of us if china shed more information on the real cover picture. well, i think it'd be, it'd be helpful. i think most people across the world are saying that the information being shared is failing, inadequate. both in terms of case numbers or the, the state of the hospitals getting overwhelmed the deaths so, so certainly that would help us consider the potential impact on other countries.

and also whether we could provide interesting in terms of helping at a global level, i might add of course, once you are overwhelmed with so many cases, everything falls down and it's possible like would be having trouble with data management as, as well as, as all like clinical crisis and fisher, thank you very much for talking us today. on the w news, asia silver covered over jubilant chinese. started planning trips abroad. again, my cow, top of the least for many a showed the gambling hub, be cheering ole, fearing was to come so far and yes, slither of the sumptuous tourist cake has returned. it's been a rough few years focus. he knows and shops on the on it is some reaction from locals and tourists. i don't know. i'm sad about the shop closures. many are gone. i wish it could be like pre pandemic days when they were opened with people on the streets, it was better than you got that would be 10 to 20 percent or tourists,

but they're just having a look to not shopping. just wandering, waited at either mode. i endured so much, i felt exhausted. i've endured this for 3 years. we were busy for a few months than waited for a few months to reopen. the virus is not as infectious, i hope the relaxation of restrictions will help our economy recover. so we've got 5 up into that if a now be sure to check out our other stories on d. w dot com slash asia or on facebook and twitter will leave you with new year's eve celebrations from across parts of asia. he is tooth 2023.

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a to multi was global economy and how to make the construction industry more sustainable. we'll give you one concrete example. this is d w business. i'm kate ferguson. thanks for joining me. teresa has kicked off the new year with 2 major moves towards a further integration into the european union as well, adopting the euro common currency. it's also joined to the passport free shannon zone. for the next 2 weeks, corporations will be able to use both our old crone up on both on the euro. then it's a final good bye to the old currency. the country joined the you 10 years ago and how to introduce reform is to prove its economy was sufficiently stable to join the monetary union joining the euro zone. the shang and travel zone will provide a big booth to the countries tourism industry, which account for a 5th of the can. i push on was badly hit by.