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After rising controversy over a birthday party,Caspar Tsui, Home Minister of Hong Kong resigned from his position on 31^stJanuary. The party is organized by Hong Kong government officials and wasattended by roughly 200 people in January during the early stage of the Omicronoutbreak.

After flouting COVID-19 precautions, which Tsuihelped in organizing, the Home Minster took the blame and resigned effectiveimmediately.

Home Minister Caspar Tsui, immediately resignedfrom his position after handling his resignation to Carrie Lam, Chief Executiveof Hong Kong on 31^st January. In the Bloomberg interview, CasparTsui said “as one of the government officials being the face of theanti-epidemic fight, I have not been the best example during the recent Omicronoutbreak for the citizen of Hong kong.

Tsui was one of the 15 officials who attended aparty of around 200 people for the local representative of the Chinese economicdevelopment agency organized on 3^rd January, where several guestswere tested positive for COVID-1. Interestingly, only a few days before, thegovernment urged people to avoid large gatherings to stop the COVID outbreak.

After Tsui’s resignation news, Lam said at apress briefing that those 12 officials who attended the birthday party strictlyfollowed the Covid-19 precautions protocols, and that time the city’s infectionrate was low. However, Tsui didn’t wear a mask and stayed for nearly two hours.His acts had put the government into a bad light and brought dishonor, sheadded.

The party took place at an Spanish restaurantin Wan Chia “ReservaIberica”. As per the invitation of the party, all theguests were instructed to wear masks unless they are eating or drinking and toavoid posting photos on their social media handles. Although, the leaked photosof the party showed a different scenario where the guests were unmasked andseated close to each other. The exact number of attendees is still unclear, asper the local media there were around 200 attendees at the party.

LauSiu-kai, vice president of the semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kongand Macau Studies said this resignation by Hong Kong’s home minister will helpin reducing the damage made by the scandal and it shows that the authority istaking corrective measures to control the pandemic.

Just hours before Caspar Tsui’s resignation,Chief Executive Lam released the reports of an internal investigation of thescandal which included 15 government officials.

Asper Hong Kong press reporter Candice Chau, the investigation was made on thebasis of a self-reported questionnaire issue to all 15 people. They were askedto give the details of the party like their arrival time at the party, how longthey stayed there, whether they wore a mask, and did they used LeaveHomeSafe ornot.

On31 January, Gary Cheung and Natalie Wong published an article in the SouthChina Morning Post outlining the results of the investigation. They mentionedChief Executive Carrie Lam’s statement in which she stated Caspar Tsui attendedtwo vital internal meetings focused on ways to tighten social-distancing rulesheld on December 31 and January 3 (just hours before attending the birthdayparty).

Theinvestigation also found that the political assistant to the DevelopmentSecretary, Allen Fung Ying-lun stayed at the party for more than four hours. Hewas uncertain whether he wore a mask or not due to alcohol consumption. DeputyHead of Policy Innovation and Coordination office, Vincent Fung Hao-yin didn’tappear for the mandatory testing order on the day it was issued and put therisk of transmitting the infection on fellow colleagues by returning to workthe very next day. However, Allen Fung and Vincent Fung would receive only averbal warning from their respective supervisors seeing that they were notinvolved in anti-pandemic work.

Itis worth mentioning that people were not satisfied with the fact that apartfrom Tsui, only two out of the 15 officials under investigation suffered theconsequences. Lawyers who were in charge of reviewing the party photosmentioned that they gathered potential evidence of many criminal offenses likelarge crowd size, unmasked attendees, and not using the LeaveHomeSafe exposurealert app – which add up to HK$5000 fine to jail for six months.

Meanwhile,all the government officials who attended the party issued public apologies.The zero-covid policy is already testing Hong Kong’s restricted limits on freespeech. Recently, the government informed the citizens by issuing a statementclarifying that making general comments and discussions regarding theeffectiveness of the policy is not illegal.