又中又英｜disconcerting - Michael Chugani 褚簡寧

As I said in my previous column, it saddens me how severely Omicron has affected Hong Kong, where I was born. It is disconcerting（upsetting）to see Omicron infecting thousands of people daily. It is disconcerting to see many ill patients in temporary beds outside hospitals in the cold weather waiting to be admitted. Hong Kong is a first-world city. Such things should not happen. But the coronavirus is tenacious. If something is tenacious it means it has a strong grip and refuses to accept defeat. When the first virus wave reached the US, hospital beds were full with sick and dying patients in corridors.

That's no longer the case. Most US hospitals now have spare ICU beds. The expression ICU stands for Intensive Care Unit, a hospital room where very sick people are put. I read media reports that said the Hong Kong government has finally moved sick patients in temporary beds outside hospitals to indoors. That is uplifting news. If something is uplifting, it means it makes you feel better. There has been a lot of uplifting news in the US recently. The Omicron pandemic is receding（decreasing, subsiding）as quickly as it was infecting people not long ago. The same thing had happened in South Africa, where Omicron was first detected, and Europe. Omicron infects people quickly but recedes quickly.

I think that will happen in Hong Kong but its dynamic zero policy means it may remain closed while the rest of the world except China and Taiwan open up. Taiwan has said it may open up later this year because it needs to save its economy. Almost all US states have removed rules requiring masks except for schools. One US media organization said mask rules are dropping like flies. This expression can mean a lot of people dying but in this case it means something that is quickly decreasing. Omicron is decreasing so quickly that California is the first US state to say it will treat the coronavirus as endemic, not a pandemic.
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正如我在上一篇文所說的，見Omicron那麼嚴重地侵襲香港，我的出生之地，令我黯然神傷。看着Omicron每天感染數以千計的人，實在令人不安（disconcerting）。許多抱恙的病患者要在寒冷天氣下，於醫院外的臨時病牀等待入院，亦令人看得很不是味兒。香港屬於第一世界城市，這樣的事，委實不應發生。然而，新冠肺炎疫情是tenacious——若某事是tenacious，意即它很頑強、緊緊抓住不放，總不言敗。當第一波疫情席捲美國時，醫院病牀都爆滿，走廊盡是病危與垂死的病人。

現在已不再一樣了，美國大部份的醫院現時都還有空置的ICU病牀。習語ICU，是Intensive Care Unit，深切治療部的簡稱，是治療重病傷患的病房。我讀到傳媒報道指，香港政府終將臨時病牀的病人轉移至室內，那實在是uplifting的新聞——若某事是uplifting，意即它令你感到開心或鼓舞。

我認為香港也會一樣，可是其動態清零政策意味着，除了中國內地與台灣以外，世界其他地方都在開放的同時，香港將仍繼續封閉。台灣已表明會在今年稍後時間開關，因為他們需要挽救經濟。差不多所有美國州份已解除了要戴口罩的規定，除了學校以外。一個美國傳媒機構說，口罩令正dropping like flies——這個習語可以指有大批人死亡，但在這裏是指某事物正大幅減少。Omicron正快速減退，加州成為美國首個州份，率先宣佈會將新冠肺炎視為風土病，而非全球大流行疫症。
中譯:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧