title: Unemployment benefits

text: In 2001, the federal government increased parental leave from 10 to 35 weeks, which was added to preexisting maternity benefits of 15 weeks. In 2004, it allowed workers to take EI for compassionate care leave while caring for a dying relative, although the strict conditions imposed make this a little used benefit. In 2006, the Province of Quebec opted out of the federal EI scheme in respect of maternity, parental and adoption benefits, in order to provide more generous benefits for all workers in that province, including self-employed workers. Total EI spending was $19.677 billion for 2011–2012 (figures in Canadian dollars).


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Employers contribute 1.4 times the amount of employee premiums. Since 1990, there is no government contribution to this fund. The amount a person receives and how long they can stay on EI varies with their previous salary, how long they were working, and the unemployment rate in their area. The EI system is managed by Service Canada, a service delivery network reporting to the Minister of Employment and Social Development Canada.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: A bit over half of EI benefits are paid in Ontario and the Western provinces but EI is especially important in the Atlantic provinces, which have higher rates of unemployment. Many Atlantic workers are also employed in seasonal work such as fishing, forestry or tourism and go on EI over the winter when there is no work. There are special rules for fishermen making it easier for them to collect EI. EI also pays for maternity and parental leave, compassionate care leave, and illness coverage. The programme also pays for retraining programmes (EI Part II) through labour market agreements with the Canadian provinces.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: A significant part of the federal fiscal surplus of the Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin years came from the EI system. Premiums were reduced much less than falling expenditures – producing, from 1994 onwards, EI surpluses of several billion dollars per year, which were added to general government revenue. The cumulative EI surplus stood at $57 billion at 31 March 2008, nearly four times the amount needed to cover the extra costs paid during a recession. This drew criticism from Opposition parties and from business and labour groups, and has remained a recurring issue of the public debate. The Conservative Party, chose not to recognize those EI surpluses after being elected in 2006. Instead, the Conservative government cancelled the EI surpluses entirely in 2010, and required EI contributors to make up the 2009, 2010 and 2011 annual deficits by increasing EI premiums. On 11 December 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected a court challenge launched against the federal government by two Quebec unions, who argued that EI funds had been misappropriated by the government.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: The level of benefit is set between the minimum wage and the minimum living allowance by individual provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Each Member State of the European Union has its own system and, in general, a worker should claim unemployment benefits in the country where they last worked. For a person working in a country other than their country of residency (a cross-border worker), they will have to claim benefits in their country of residence.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Two systems run in parallel, combining a Ghent system and a minimum level of support provided by Kela, an agency of the national government. Unionization rates are high (70%), and union membership comes with membership in an unemployment fund. Additionally, there are non-union unemployment funds. Usually, benefits require 26 weeks of 18 hours per week on average, and the unemployment benefit is 60% of the salary and lasts for 500 days. When this is not available, Kela can pay either regular unemployment benefit or labor market subsidy benefits. The former requires a degree and two years of full-time work. The latter requires participation in training, education, or other employment support, which may be mandated on pain of losing the benefit, but may be paid after the regular benefits have been either maxed out or not available. Although the unemployment funds handle the payments, most of the funding is from taxes and compulsory tax-like unemployment insurance charges.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Regardless of whether benefits are paid by Kela or from an unemployment fund, the unemployed person receives assistance from the "Työ- ja elinkeinokeskus" ("TE-keskus", or the "Work and Livelihood Centre"), a government agency which helps people to find jobs and employers to find workers. In order to be considered unemployed, the seeker must register at the TE-keskus as unemployed. If the jobseeker does not have degree, the agency can require the job seeker to apply to a school.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: If the individual does not qualify for any unemployment benefit he may still be eligible for the housing benefit ("asumistuki") from Kela and municipal social welfare provisions ("toimeentulotuki"). They are not unemployment benefits and depend on household income, but they have in practice become the basic income of many long-term unemployed.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: France uses a quasi Ghent system, under which unemployment benefits are distributed by an independent agency (UNEDIC) in which unions and Employer organisations are equally represented. UNEDIC is responsible for 3 benefits: ARE, ACA and ASR The main ARE scheme requires a minimum of 122 days membership in the preceding 24 months and certain other requirements before any claims can be made. Employers pay a contribution on top of the pre-tax income of their employees, which together with the employee contribution, fund the scheme.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: The maximum unemployment benefit is (as of March 2009) 57.4% of EUR 162 per day (Social security contributions ceiling in 2011), or 6900 euros per month. Claimants receive 57,4% of their average daily salary of the last 12 months preceding unemployment with the average amount being 1,111 euros per month. In France tax and other payroll taxes are paid on unemployment benefits. In 2011 claimants received the allowance for an average 291 days.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: It is designed like an insurance, involuntary unemployment through no personal fault being the “event of damage”.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: All workers with a regular employment contract (), except freelancers and certain civil servants (), contribute to the system.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Employees pay 1.5% of their gross salary below the social security threshold and employers pay 1.5% contribution on top of the salary paid to the employee.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: The contribution level was reduced from 3.25% for employees and employers as part of labour market reforms known as Hartz.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Claimants get 60% of their previous net salary (capped at the social security ceiling), or 67% for claimants with children (as long as beneficiary of child benefit).


title: Unemployment benefits

text: If the benefits fall below the poverty line, it is possible to "supplement" unemployment benefits I with unemployment benefits II if its conditions are met as well.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Unemployment benefits I is only granted for a "limited" period of time, the minimum being 6 months, and the maximum 24 months in the case of old and long-term insured people.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Due to wage dumping and other labour market dynamics, a large number of "working" beneficiaries "supplement" their monthly income.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: People receiving benefits are obligated to cease their eligibility at all costs, but at least "minimise" their dependence on welfare until no money would be paid.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: That means, they are obliged to seek for jobs nationwide, and accept "every" job offered, otherwise sanctions (retrenchment) may be applied.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Prostitution is legal in Germany (although as of 2021 no job center has urged any beneficiary to engage in prostitution).


title: Unemployment benefits

text: In exchange for that, beneficiaries are assisted in that process, e.g. by reimbursing travel expenses to interviews, receiving (free of charge) training in order to increase their chances on the labour market, or subsidising moving expenses once an employment contract has been signed but the place of work requires relocation as it is further than the acceptable daily commute duration (at most 3 hrs a day).


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Beneficiaries not complying with orders can be sanctioned by pruning their allowance and eventually revoking the grant altogether, virtually pushing them into poverty, homelessness and bankruptcy, as there are no other precautions installed.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Germany does not have an EBT (electronic benefits transfer) card system in place and, instead, disburses welfare in cash or via direct deposit into the recipient's bank account.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: As of 2022 a single person without children receives at most €449 per month at free disposal intended to cover living expenses, plus costs for reasonable accommodation (rent and heating).


title: Unemployment benefits

text: People granted benefits are automatically insured at reduced rates in the national health and nursing care insurances.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: The national pension insurance accounts the time living on benefits, but it does not increase the pension entitlement since in 2011 the federal government stopped paying €205 monthly.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: As unemployment benefits II are meant to ensure a minimum subsistence level, the mechanism of sanctions has been repeatedly subject in front of the constitutional court.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: In July 2022 Germany’s government implemented a one-year moratorium on sanctions, permitting only a 10%-cut for repeatedly missing appointments ().


title: Unemployment benefits

text: This measure was taken as a precursor to restructuring unemployment benefits II into a citizen's dividend ().


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Unemployment benefits in Greece are administered through OAED (, Manpower Employment Organization) and are available only to laid-off salaried workers with full employment and social security payments during the previous two years. The self-employed do not qualify, and neither do those with other sources of income. The monthly benefit is fixed at the "55% of 25 minimum daily wages", and is currently 360 euros per month, with a 10% increase for each under-age child. Recipients are eligible for at most twelve months; the exact duration depends on the collected number of , that is social security payment coupons-stamps collected (i.e. days of work) during the 14 months before being laid off; the minimum number of such coupons, under which there is no eligibility, is 125, collected in the first 12 of the 14 aforementioned months. Eligibility since 1 January 2013, has been further constrained in that one applying for unemployment benefits for a second or more time, must not have received more than the equivalent of 450 days of such benefits during the last four years since the last time one had started receiving such benefits; if one has received unemployment benefits in this period for more than 450 days then there is no eligibility while if one has received less, then one is only eligible for at most the remaining days up until the maximum of 450 days is reached.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: In terms of an unemployment allowance, Greece allows for those found in unemployment, who are employed through an independent profession, to receive benefits if their latest paycheck had not exceeded a certain amount, the current rate should not exceed €1,467.35. When receiving benefits an individual cannot be earning money from a self-employed profession. If the income increases the fixed amount, a tax authority must issue a certificate that explains that the individual has "interrupted the exercise of the profession", which must be done within 15 days. Unemployment benefits are also granted to those who have generated an income that does not exceed €1,467.35 from the final paycheck received from a liberal profession. In order to receive a grant, the individual must not be receiving an income from the previous liberal profession. Seasonal aid is also provided to workers whose jobs cannot be performed through the entire year are also provided benefits by the OAED.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Under the OAED, individuals who are benefiting from long-term unemployment must be within the ages of 20 to 66 years of age and have a family income that does not exceed €10,000 annually. An individual becomes eligible for long-term benefits if the regular unemployment subsidy is exhausted after 12 months. After the expiration of the 12-month period, an application towards long-term unemployment benefits must be submitted in the first 2 months. If an unemployed person seeks long term unemployment and has a child, the allowance is allowed to increase by €586.08 (per child). Long-term unemployment can only be granted if the individual can be found registered under the OAED unemployment registrar.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: To receive unemployment benefits in Iceland, one must submit an application to the Directorate of Labour ("Vinnumálastofnun") and meet a specific criteria set forth by the department. Icelandic employment rates have traditionally been higher than every other OECD country. In the most recent financial quarter, 85.8% of the Icelandic working-age population were employed, with only 2.8% of the population unemployed. When broken down by age group, Iceland's labor force is highly active, with 74.9% of the population between the ages of 15 to 24 years old and 89.4% of people between the ages of 25 to 55 years old active in the labor market. This low rate of unemployment is attributed to the adoption of the Ghent system, which has been adopted by the countries of Denmark, Finland and Sweden, and highly emphasizes trade and labor unions to provide unemployment benefits and protections to workers, which ultimately has led to higher union membership than other capitalist economies. The safety net that these unions provide also leads to more stable job retention and less reliance on part-time employment. Only 11.9% of the working population is dependent on temporary employment.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Unlike purely social-democratic states in Europe, the Nordic model that Iceland adopted borrows aspects of both a social-democratic and liberal-welfare state. Iceland not only sees high government involvement in providing social welfare and amenities as with the social-democratic model, but like the liberal-welfare model, it is also heavily reliant on free trade and markets. The country relies on an open capitalistic market for economic growth, yet also embraces a corporatist system that allows for wage bargaining to occur between the labor force and employers in order to protect workers and ensure provisions like unemployment benefits are ensured. Currently, the legislation that ensures these benefits is The Act on Trade Unions and Industrial Disputes, which was adopted in 1938 and has been amended five times since its inception to adjust to the rise of globalization. In Section 1, Articles 1–13 grant trade unions the right to organize and negotiate with employers over fair wages for its members as well as representation for their members in the event of workplace conflicts. These rights for organized unions set forth by the Ministry of Welfare not only provide the country's labor force fair and equal representation within their respective industries, but also allow for these organizations to maintain an active relationship with the Icelandic government to discuss economic issues, promote labor and social equality, and ensure benefits for unemployed laborers, as these unions are highly centralized and not politically affiliated.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Unemployment benefits in Iceland ("atvinnuleysisbætur") can involve up to 100% reimbursement per month for wage earners for a maximum of 30 months. However, these rates of reimbursement are determined by previous status of employment, such as whether an individual is a wage-earner or is self-employed, as well as meeting certain mandates such as being a current resident of Iceland, be actively searching for employment, and retaining a 25% position for three months within the past 12 months before filing for unemployment. Unemployed workers can be compensated through either basic or income-linked benefits. Basic unemployment benefits can cover both wage-earning and self-employing individuals for the first half-month (10 days) after they lose their job, whereas income-linked benefits can cover wage-earning and self-employing individuals for up to three months based on a set salary index and length of employment. However, those who are unemployed must report to the Directorate of Labour once a month to reaffirm their status of unemployment and that they are actively searching for employment or unemployment benefits could be revoked. Under the Icelandic Labour Law, employees must be given a notice period of termination that can range from 12 days to six months and is determined by the length of previous employment under the same employer.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: People aged 18 and over and who are unemployed in Ireland can apply for either the Jobseeker's Allowance ("Liúntas do Lucht Cuardaigh Fostaíochta") or the Jobseeker's Benefit ("Sochar do Lucht Cuardaigh Fostaíochta"). Both are paid by the Department of Social Protection and are nicknamed "the dole".


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Unemployment benefit in Ireland can be claimed indefinitely for as long as the individual remains unemployed. The standard payment is €203 per week for those aged 26 and over. For those aged 18 to 24 the rate is €112.70 per week. For those aged 25 the weekly rate is €157.80. Payments can be increased if the unemployed has dependents. For each adult dependent, another €134.70 is added, €112.70 if the recipient (as opposed to the dependent) is aged 18 to 24, and for each child dependent €34 or €37 is added, depending on the child's age.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: There are more benefits available to unemployed people, usually on a special or specific basis. Benefits include the "Housing Assistance Payment", and the "Fuel Allowance", among others. People on a low income (which includes those on JA/JB) are entitled to a Medical Card (although this must be applied for separately from the Health Service Executive) which provides free health care, optical care, limited dental care, aural care and subsidised prescription drugs carrying a €2.00 per item charge to a maximum monthly contribution of €25 per household (as opposed to subsidised services like non medical-card holders).


title: Unemployment benefits

text: To qualify for Jobseekers Allowance, claimants must satisfy the "Habitual Residence Condition": they must have been legally in the state (or the Common Travel Area) for two years or have another good reason (such as lived abroad and are returning to Ireland after becoming unemployed or deported). This condition does not apply to Jobseekers Benefit (which is based on Social Insurance payments).


title: Unemployment benefits

text: India follows a social insurance system for unemployment benefits much like its European counterparts. Unemployment allowance is given to workers in India who have contributed to the Employees' State Insurance for at least three years. The benefit is given for a maximum of one year and is either 50% of the average daily wage or Rs 35,000 a month, whichever is lower.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: In Israel, unemployment benefits are paid by Bituah Leumi (National Insurance Institute), to which workers must pay contributions. Eligible workers must immediately register with the Employment Service Bureau upon losing their jobs or jeopardize their eligibility, and the unemployment period is considered to start upon registration with the Employment Service Bureau. To be eligible for unemployment benefits, a person must be at least 20 years old, have been previously employed, and completed a "qualifying period" of work for which unemployment insurance contributions were paid which varies between 300 and 360 days. Employees who were involuntarily terminated from their jobs or who terminated their own employment and can provide evidence of having done so for a justified reason are eligible for immediately receiving unemployment benefits, while those who are deemed to have terminated their employment of their own volition with no justified reason will only begin receiving unemployment benefits 90 days from the start of their unemployment period.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Unemployment benefits are paid daily, with the amount calculated based on the employee's previous income over the past six months, but not exceeding the daily average wage for the first 125 days of payment and two-thirds of the daily average wage from the 126th day onwards. During the unemployment period, the Employment Service Bureau assists in helping locate suitable work and job training, and regularly reporting to the Employment Service Bureau is a condition for continuing to receive unemployment benefits. A person who was offered suitable work or training by the Employment Service Bureau but refused will only receive unemployment benefits 90 days after the date of the refusal, and 30 days' worth of unemployment benefits will be deducted for each subsequent refusal.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Members of kibbutzim and moshavim are typically not covered by the national unemployment system and are covered by the community's own social welfare system, unless they are employed outside of their community or directly by the community.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: There are also unemployment benefits for immigrants who have not yet been able to find employment or who are receiving below minimum wage pay. The time period that they are qualified to receive unemployment benefits is during the first 12 months following their immigration to Israel. They are entitled to support from Havtachat Hachnasa, which is income support that is allocated from National Insurance.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Employees deemed to have been terminated from their jobs without legitimate cause are also legally entitled to severance pay from their employers, equivalent of one month's pay for each year that the unemployed individual had worked for his or her previous employer.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Unions are also involved with the unemployment system in Israel. One such union group is the Histadrut which is commonly known as the General Organization of Workers in Israel. One of the Histadrut's main objectives is to creates job assistance programs to help unemployed workers back into the workforce. Dr. Roby Nathanson, a doctor in economics at the University of Köl, believes these job replacement programs are successful due to the job unemployment rate in Israel. The unemployment rate in Israel in 2009 had been 9.5% and has since dropped to around 4% in 2018.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Unemployment benefits in Italy consist mainly of cash transfers based on contributions ("Assicurazione Sociale per l'Impiego, ASPI"), up to the 75% of the previous wages for up to sixteen months. Other measures are:


title: Unemployment benefits

text: In the Italian unemployment insurance system all the measures are income-related, and they have an average decommodification level. The basis for entitlement is always employment, with more specific conditions for each case, and the provider is quite always the state. An interesting feature worthy to be discussed is that the Italian system takes in consideration also the economic situation of the employers, and aims as well at relieving them from the costs of crisis.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Unemployment benefits in Japan are called "unemployment insurance" and are closer to the US or Canadian "user pays" system than the taxpayer funded systems in place in countries such as Britain, New Zealand, or Australia. It is paid for by contributions by both the employer and employee.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: On leaving a job, employees are supposed to be given a "Rishoku-hyo" document showing their ID number (the same number is supposed to be used by later employers), employment periods, and pay (which contributions are linked to). The reason for leaving is also documented separately. These items affect eligibility, timing, and amount of benefits. The length of time that unemployed workers can receive benefits depends on the age of the employee, and how long they have been employed and paying in.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: It is supposed to be compulsory for most full-time employees. If they have been enrolled for at least 6 months and are fired or made redundant, leave the company at the end of their contract, or their contract is non-renewed, the now-unemployed worker will receive unemployment insurance. If a worker quit of their own accord they may have to wait between 1 and 3 months before receiving any payment.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Mexico lacks a national unemployment insurance system, but it does have five programs to assist the unemployed:


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Unemployment benefits in the Netherlands were introduced in 1949. Separate schemes exist for mainland Netherlands and for the Caribbean Netherlands.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: The scheme in mainland Netherlands entails that, according to the Werkloosheidswet (Unemployment Law, WW), employers are responsible for paying the contributions to the scheme, which are deducted from the salary received by the employees. In 2012 the contribution was 4.55% of gross salary up to a ceiling of 4,172 euros per month. The first 1,435.75 euros of an employee's gross salaries are not subject to the 4.55% contribution.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Benefits are paid for a maximum period of 24 months and claimants get 75% of last salary for 2 months and 70% thereafter with a maximum benefit of 3128 euros, depending on how long the claimant has been employed previously. Workers older than 50 years who are unemployed for over 2 months are entitled to a special benefit called the IOAW, if they do not receive the regular unemployment benefit (WW).


title: Unemployment benefits

text: In New Zealand, Jobseeker Support, previously known as the Unemployment Benefit and also known as "the dole" provides income support for people who are looking for work or training for work. It is one of a number of benefits administered by Work and Income, a service of the Ministry of Social Development.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: To get this benefit, a person must meet the conditions and obligations specified in section 88A to 123D Social Security Act 1964. These conditions and obligations cover things such as age, residency status, and availability to work.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: The amount that is paid depends on things such as the person's age, income, marital status and whether they have children. It is adjusted annually on 1 April and in response to changes in legislature. Some examples of the maximum after tax weekly rate at 1 April 2019 are:


title: Unemployment benefits

text: In the Philippines, workers in the private sector who involuntarily became unemployed, including housemaids and Overseas Filipino Workers, are entitled to benefits through the Social Security Act of 2018. Unemployment benefits is sourced from the country's Social Security System (SSS). Under the 2018 legislation, the benefits are dispensed through a one-time payment to equal to 50 percent of the claimant's monthly salary for a maximum of two months. Those who were terminated due to certain reasons such as grave misconduct, gross negligence, and commission of a crime are ineligible to avail unemployment benefits.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: For government workers, unemployment benefits are sourced from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). Payments are equal to 50 percent of the claimant's average monthly compensation and are dispensed monthly for two to six months, depending on the claimant's length of service.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: In Poland, the system is designed to prevent people from living off unemployment benefits long term, thus forcing them to work or rely on non-state means of support (family, charities). In order to claim any state unemployment support, an adult (18+) claimant has to prove at least one year of continuous, full employment (that is, minimum 40 hours a week/160 hours a month) in the last 18 months prior to registering with the Unemployment Agency. If approved, as of 2019, one is granted 848 zł (224.25 US$ in April 2019) on a month-to-month basis for the first 3 months, then the amount is automatically lowered to 666 zł (176.20 US$ in April 2019) for the remaining 3–9 months. Therefore, if approved, one can claim unemployment benefits only to the maximum of 12 continuous months. However, during that period, one has to cooperate with the Unemployment Bureau in finding an employment under the strict guidelines of losing the unemployed status, and thus the benefits. In comparison to the unemployment benefits paid by the state, as of January 2019, the minimum monthly pay is 2250,00 zł (595.51 US$ in April 2019) .


title: Unemployment benefits

text: The Spanish unemployment benefits system is part of the Social security system of Spain. Benefits are managed by the State Public Employment Agency (SEPE). The basis for entitlement is having contributed for a minimum period during the time preceding unemployment, with further conditions that may be applicable. The system comprises contributory benefits and non-contributory benefits.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Contributory benefits are payable to those unemployed persons with a minimum of 12 months' contributions over a period of 6 years preceding unemployment. The benefit is payable for 1/3 of the contribution period. The benefit amount is 70% of the legal reference salary plus additional amounts for persons with dependants. The benefit reduces to 60% of the reference salary after 6 months. The minimum benefit is 497 euros per month and the maximum is 1087.20 euros per month for a single person. The non-contributory allowance is available to those persons who are no longer entitled to the contributory pension and who do not have income above 75% of the national minimum wage.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Sweden uses the Ghent system, under which a significant proportion of unemployment benefits are distributed by union unemployment funds. Unemployment benefits are divided into a voluntary scheme with income related compensation up to a certain level and a comprehensive scheme that provides a lower level of basic support. The voluntary scheme requires a minimum of 12 months membership and 6 months employment during that time before any claims can be made. Employers pay a fee on top of the pre-tax income of their employees, which together with membership fees, fund the scheme (see Unemployment funds in Sweden).


title: Unemployment benefits

text: The maximum unemployment benefit is (as of July 2016) SEK 980 per day. During the first 200 days, the unemployed will receive 80% of his or her normal income during the last 12 months. From day 201–300 this goes down to 70% and from day 301–450 the insurance covers 65% of the normal income (only available for parents to children under the age of 18). In Sweden tax is paid on unemployment benefits, so the unemployed will get a maximum of about SEK 10,000 per month during the first 100 days (depending on the municipality tax rate). In other currencies, as of June 2017, this means a maximum of approximately £900, $1,150, or €1,000, each month after tax. Private insurance is also available, mainly through professional organisations, to provide income-related compensation that otherwise exceeds the ceiling of the scheme. The comprehensive scheme is funded by tax.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Saudi Arabia is an economic welfare state with free medical care and unemployment benefits. However, the country relies not on taxation but mainly oil revenues to maintain the social and economic services to its populace.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: By law, legally employed workers, regardless of their citizenship are eligible for unemployment benefits given that they are at least 18 years old, the employees contribute 1% to unemployment funds while the employers contribute 2%, and the workers are eligible to receive benefits after 600 days of contributions within the preceding 3 years of employment. the benefit payment is 50% for the average daily earnings based on the last 4 months and cannot be higher than the minimum wage (per industry). Benefits may be paid for a max of 1,080 days depending on the number of contributions. Some are skeptical of how well the system is functioning in Turkey


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Unemployment benefit is paid in the United Kingdom either as Jobseeker's Allowance or (for most people) as an element of Universal Credit.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) is changed annually; for the 2020/2021 tax year (commencing 6 April 2020) the maximum payable is £74.35 per week for a single person aged over 25 or £58.90 per week for a single person aged 18–24. The rules for couples where both are unemployed are more complex, but a maximum of £116.80 per week is payable, dependent on age and other factors. For those who are still getting Income-based JSA or are getting Universal Credit, and having savings of over £6,000, there is a reduction of £1 per week per £250 of savings up to £16,000. People with savings of over £16,000 are not able to get Income-based JSA or Universal Credit at all. The British system previously provided rent payments as part of a separate scheme called Housing Benefit, however for most new claimants, this benefit is now instead paid as an element of the comprehensive Universal Credit scheme.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: In the United States, there are 50 state unemployment insurance programs plus one each in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and United States Virgin Islands. Though policies vary by state, unemployment benefits generally pay eligible workers as high as $855.00 in Massachusetts to a low as $235 per week maximum in Mississippi. Eligibility requirements for unemployment insurance vary by state, but generally speaking, employees not fired for misconduct ("terminated for cause") are eligible for unemployment benefits, while those who quit or who are fired for misconduct (this sometimes can include misconduct committed outside the workplace, such as a problematic social media post or committing a crime) are not. Though the participation rate varies by state from below 10% to above 60%, nationwide only 29% of unemployed Americans (those seeking work) received unemployment benefits.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: The economic argument for unemployment insurance comes from the principle of adverse selection. One common criticism of unemployment insurance is that it induces moral hazard, the fact that unemployment insurance lowers on-the-job effort and reduces job-search effort.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: To Keynesians, unemployment insurance acts as an automatic stabilizer. Benefits automatically increase when unemployment is high and fall when unemployment is low, smoothing the business cycle; however, others claim that the taxation necessary to support this system serves to decrease employment.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Adverse selection refers to the fact that "workers who have the highest probability of becoming unemployed have the highest demand for unemployment insurance." Adverse selection causes profit maximizing private insurance agencies to set high premiums for the insurance because there is a high likelihood they will have to make payments to the policyholder. High premiums work to exclude many individuals who otherwise might purchase the insurance. "A compulsory government program avoids the adverse selection problem. Hence, government provision of UI has the potential to increase efficiency. However, government provision does not eliminate moral hazard."


title: Unemployment benefits

text: "At the same time, those workers who managed to obtain insurance might experience more unemployment otherwise would have been the case." The private insurance company would have to determine whether the employee is unemployed through no fault of their own, which is difficult to determine. Incorrect determinations could result in the payout of significant amounts for fraudulent claims or alternately failure to pay legitimate claims. This leads to the rationale that if government could solve either problem that government intervention would increase efficiency. The moral hazard argument against unemployment insurance is based on the idea that such insurance would increase the risk, or 'hazard,' that the insured worker would engage in activity that is undesirable, or 'immoral,' from the insurer's point of view. That is, unemployment insurance could create longer or more frequent episodes of unemployment than would otherwise occur. This could occur if workers partially cushioned against periods of unemployment are more likely to accept jobs that have a higher risk of unemployment, or spend more time searching for a new job after becoming unemployed.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: In the Great Recession, the "moral hazard" issue of whether unemployment insurance—and specifically extending benefits past the maximum 99 weeks—significantly encourages unemployment by discouraging workers from finding and taking jobs was expressed by Republican legislators. Conservative economist Robert Barro found that benefits raised the unemployment rate 2%. Disagreeing with Barro's study were Berkeley economist Jesse Rothstein, who found the "vast majority" of unemployment was due to "demand shocks" not "[unemployment insurance]-induced supply reductions." A study by Rothstein of extensions of unemployment insurance to 99 weeks during the Great Recession to test the hypothesis that unemployment insurance discourages people from seeking jobs found the overall effect of UI on unemployment was to raise it by no more than one-tenth of 1%.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: A November 2011 report by the Congressional Budget Office found that even if unemployment benefits convince some unemployed to ignore job openings, these openings were quickly filled by new entrants into the labor market. A survey of studies on unemployment insurance's effect on employment by the Political Economy Research Institute found that unemployed who collected benefits did not find themselves out of work longer than those who "didn't" have unemployment benefits; and that unemployed workers did not search for work more or reduce their wage expectations once their benefits ran out.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: One concern over unemployment insurance increasing unemployment is based on experience rating benefit uses which can sometimes be imperfect. That is, the cost to the employer in increased taxes is less than the benefits that would be paid to the employee upon layoff. The firm in this instance believes that it is more cost effective to lay off the employee, causing more unemployment than under perfect experience rating.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: An alternative rationale for unemployment insurance is that it may allow for improving the quality of matches between workers and firms. Marimon and Zilibotti argued that although a more generous unemployment benefit system may indeed increase the unemployment rate, it may also help improve the average match quality. A similar point is made by Mazur who analyzed the welfare and inequality effects of a policy reform giving entitlement for unemployment insurance to quitters. Arash Nekoei and Andrea Weber present empirical evidence from Austria that extending unemployment benefit duration raises wages by improving reemployment firm quality. Similarly, Tatsiramos studied data from European countries and found that although unemployment insurance does increase unemployment duration, the duration of subsequent employment tends to be longer (suggesting better match quality).


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Another issue with unemployment insurance relates to its effects on state budgets. During recessionary time periods, the number of unemployed rises and they begin to draw benefits from the program. The longer the recession lasts, depending on the state's starting UI program balance, the quicker the state begins to run out of funds. The recession that began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009 significantly impacted state budgets. According to The Council of State Governments, by 18 March 2011, 32 states plus the Virgin Islands had borrowed nearly $45.7 billion. The Labor Department estimates by the fourth quarter of 2013, as many as 40 states may need to borrow more than $90 billion to fund their unemployment programs and it will take a decade or more to pay off the debt.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Possible policy options for states to shore up the unemployment insurance funds include lowering benefits for recipients and/or raising taxes on businesses. Kentucky took the approach of raising taxes and lowering benefits to attempt to balance its unemployment insurance program. Starting in 2010, a claimant's weekly benefits will decrease from 68% to 62% and the taxable wage base will increase from $8,000 to $12,000, over a ten-year period. These moves are estimated to save the state over $450 million.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: Job sharing or work sharing and short time or short-time working refer to situations or systems in which employees agree to or are forced to accept a reduction in working time and pay. These can be based on individual agreements or on government programs in many countries that try to prevent unemployment. In these, employers have the option of reducing work hours to part-time for many employees instead of laying off some of them and retaining only full-time workers. For example, employees in 27 states of the United States can then receive unemployment payments for the hours they are no longer working.


title: Unemployment benefits

text: International Labour Organization has adopted the Employment Promotion and Protection against Unemployment Convention, 1988 for promotion of employment against unemployment and social security including unemployment benefit.


title: TrueNAS

text: TrueNAS is the branding for a range of free and open-source network-attached storage (NAS) operating systems produced by iXsystems, and based on FreeBSD and Linux, using the OpenZFS file system. It is licensed under the terms of the BSD License and runs on commodity x86-64 hardware.


title: TrueNAS

text: The TrueNAS range includes free public versions ("TrueNAS CORE", previously known as FreeNAS), commercial versions ("TrueNAS Enterprise"), and Linux versions ("TrueNAS SCALE"). It also offers hardware, from small home systems to large petabyte arrays, based on the above versions.


title: TrueNAS

text: TrueNAS supports Windows, macOS and Unix clients and various virtualization hosts such as XenServer and VMware using the SMB, AFP, NFS, iSCSI, SSH, rsync and FTP/TFTP protocols. Advanced TrueNAS features include full-disk encryption and a plug-in architecture for third-party software.


title: TrueNAS

text: TrueNAS is the brand for iXsystems' open source network attached storage platform. It includes the following:


title: TrueNAS

text: TrueNAS supports the OpenZFS filesystem which provides data integrity checking to prevent data corruption, enable point in time snapshotting, replication and several levels of redundancy including striping, mirroring, striped mirrors (RAID 1+0), and three levels of RaidZ.


title: TrueNAS

text: TrueNAS is managed through a comprehensive web interface that is supplemented by a minimal shell console that handles essential administrative functions. The web interface supports storage pool configuration, user management, sharing configuration and system maintenance. As an embedded system appliance, TrueNAS boots from a USB Flash device or SATA DOM. This image is configured using a USB Flash bootable installer. The TrueNAS operating system is fully independent of its storage disks, allowing its configuration database and encryption keys to be backed up and restored to a fresh installation of the Operating System. This separation also allows for TrueNAS system upgrades to be performed through the web interface.


title: TrueNAS

text: The FreeNAS project was started in October 2005 by Olivier Cochard-Labbé who based it on the m0n0wall embedded firewall and FreeBSD 6.0. Volker Theile joined the project in July 2006 and became the project lead in April 2008. In September 2009, the development team concluded that the project, then at release .7, was due for a complete rewrite in order to accommodate modern features such as a plug-in architecture. Volker Theile decided that the project best be reimplemented using Debian Linux and shifted his development efforts to the interim CoreNAS project and eventually OpenMediaVault where he continues as the project lead. Cochard-Labbé responded to community objections to "The Debian version of FreeNAS" and resumed activity in the project and oversaw its transfer to FreeNAS user iXsystems. Developers Daisuke Aoyama and Michael Zoon continued developing FreeNAS 7 as the NAS4Free project. Meanwhile, iXsystems rewrote FreeNAS with a new architecture based on FreeBSD 8.1, releasing FreeNAS 8 Beta in November 2010. The plug-in architecture arrived with FreeNAS 8.2 and FreeNAS versioning was synchronized with FreeBSD for clarity. FreeNAS 8.3 introduced full-disk encryption and FreeBSD 9.1-based FreeNAS 9.1 brought an updated plug-in architecture that is compatible with the TrueOS Warden jail management framework. FreeNAS 9.1 was also the first version of FreeNAS to use the community-supported OpenZFS v5000 with Feature Flags. FreeNAS 9.2, based on FreeBSD 9.2 included performance improvements and introduced a REST API for remote system administration. FreeNAS 9.3, based on FreeBSD 9.3 introduced a ZFS-based boot device, an initial Setup Wizard and a high-performance in-kernel iSCSI server. FreeNAS 9.10, based on FreeBSD 10.3-RC3 brought an end to the FreeNAS/FreeBSD synchronized naming and introduced Graphite monitoring support and experimental support for the bhyve hypervisor.


title: TrueNAS

text: In October 2015, ten years after the original FreeNAS release, FreeNAS 10 ALPHA was released, providing a preview of what would become FreeNAS Corral GA on March 15, 2017. FreeNAS Corral introduced a new graphical user interface, command-line interface, underlying middleware, container management system and virtual machine management system. FreeNAS Corral departs from FreeNAS by providing not only NAS functionality but also hyper-converged functionality thanks to its integrated virtual machine support. However, on April 12, 2017 iXsystems announced that FreeNAS Corral would instead be relegated to being a 'Technology Preview', citing issues such as "general instability, lack of feature parity with 9.10 (Jails, iSCSI, etc), and some users experiencing lower performance than expected" and the departure of the project lead. Instead, the decision was made to revert to the existing 9.10 code and bring Corral features to 9.10.3 and further.


title: TrueNAS

text: In May 2017, iXsystems announced that FreeNAS 11 would be imminently released, which was based on 9.10 but included features such as an update of the FreeBSD operating system, virtual machine management, updates to jails, and a new beta user interface along the lines of Corral but based on Angular.


title: TrueNAS

text: In March 2020, iXsystems announced that the 12.0 release will merge the FreeNAS code base with that of their commercial TrueNAS offering. FreeNAS will become TrueNAS CORE while TrueNAS will be renamed TrueNAS Enterprise. This change was made official with the release of TrueNAS 12.0 on October 20, 2020.


title: TrueNAS

text: In October 2020, iXsystems announced a new product, TrueNAS SCALE would be developed. TrueNAS SCALE would still utilize ZFS, but be based on Debian Linux.


title: TrueNAS

text: In February 2022, iX announced that TrueNAS SCALE has reached General Availability quality for their 22.02 release.


title: TrueNAS

text: In May 2022, iX announced that TrueNAS CORE, their FreeBSD Based version of TrueNAS, has reached General Availabilty and is suitable for large deployments.


title: TrueNAS

text: The 8.0 reimplementation of FreeNAS moved the project from a m0n0BSD/m0n0wall/PHP-based architecture to one based on FreeBSD's NanoBSD embedded build system, the Python programming language, the Django web application framework and the dōjō toolkit (JavaScript library). It also used the lighttpd web server, but this was replaced with nginx in FreeNAS 8.2. The terminated successor to 9.10.2, known as FreeNAS Corral, retained the nginx web server and ZFS-based boot device of FreeNAS but replaces the Django/dōjō web application framework with an original one. FreeNAS 11 implemented a new interface using Angular.


title: Völuspá

text: Vǫluspá (also Völuspá, Vǫlospá or Vǫluspǫ́; Old Norse: 'Prophecy of the völva, a seeress'; reconstructed Old Norse: ) is the best known poem of the "Poetic Edda". It tells the story of the creation of the world and its coming end and subsequent rebirth, related to the audience by a völva addressing Odin. It is one of the most important primary sources for the study of Norse mythology. The poem is preserved whole in the Codex Regius and Hauksbók manuscripts while parts of it are quoted in the "Prose Edda".


title: Völuspá

text: "Völuspá" is found in the Icelandic Codex Regius manuscript (ca. 1270) and in Haukr Erlendsson's "Hauksbók" Codex (ca. 1334), and many of its stanzas are quoted or paraphrased in the Prose Edda (composed ca. 1220, oldest extant manuscript dates from ca. 1300). The order and number of the stanzas varies in these sources. Some editors and translators have further rearranged the material. The Codex Regius version is usually taken as a base for editions.


title: Völuspá

text: The poem starts with the völva requesting silence from "the sons of Heimdallr" (human beings) and asking Odin whether he wants her to recite ancient lore. She says she remembers giants born in antiquity who reared her.


title: Völuspá

text: She then goes on to relate a creation myth and mentions Ymir; the world was empty until the sons of Burr lifted the earth out of the sea. The Æsir then established order in the cosmos by finding places for the sun, the moon and the stars, thereby starting the cycle of day and night. A golden age ensued where the Æsir had plenty of gold and happily constructed temples and made tools. But then three mighty giant maidens came from Jötunheimr and the golden age came to an end. The Æsir then created the dwarves, of whom Mótsognir and Durinn are the mightiest.


title: Völuspá

text: At this point ten of the poem's stanzas are over and six stanzas ensue which contain names of dwarves. This section, sometimes called "Dvergatal" ("Catalogue of Dwarves"), is usually considered an interpolation and sometimes omitted by editors and translators.


title: Völuspá

text: After the "Dvergatal", the creation of the first man and woman are recounted and Yggdrasil, the world-tree, is described. The seer recalls the burning of Gullveig that led to the first "folk" war, and what occurred in the struggle between the Æsir and Vanir. She then recalls the time Freyja was given to the giants, which is commonly interpreted as a reference to the myth of the giant builder, as told in Gylfaginning 42.


title: Völuspá

text: The seeress then reveals to Odin that she knows some of his own secrets, and that he sacrificed an eye in pursuit of knowledge. She tells him she knows where his eye is hidden and how he gave it up in exchange for knowledge. She asks him in several refrains if he understands, or if he would like to hear more.


title: Völuspá

text: In the Codex Regius version, the seeress goes on to describe the slaying of Baldr, best and fairest of the gods and the enmity of Loki, and of others. Then she prophesies the destruction of the gods where fire and flood overwhelm heaven and earth as the gods fight their final battles with their enemies. This is the "fate of the gods" - Ragnarök. She describes the summons to battle, the deaths of many of the gods and how Odin, himself, is slain by Fenrir, the great wolf. Thor, the god of thunder and sworn protector of the earth, faces Jörmungandr, the world serpent, and wins but Thor is only able to take nine steps afterward before collapsing due to the serpent's venom. Víðarr faces Fenrir and kicks his jaw open before stabbing the wolf in the heart with his spear. The god Freyr fights the giant Surtr, who wields a fiery sword that shines brighter than the sun, and Freyr falls.


title: Völuspá

text: Finally a beautiful reborn world will rise from the ashes of death and destruction where Baldr and Höðr will live again in a new world where the earth sprouts abundance without sowing seed. The surviving Æsir reunite with Hœnir and meet together at the field of Iðavöllr, discussing Jörmungandr, great events of the past, and the runic alphabet. A final stanza describes the sudden appearance of Nidhogg the dragon, bearing corpses in his wings, before the seeress emerges from her trance.


title: Völuspá

text: "Völuspá" is still one of the most discussed poems of the "Poetic Edda" and dates to the 10th century, the century before the Christianization of Iceland.


title: Völuspá

text: Some scholars hold that there are Christian influences in the text, emphasizing parallels with the Sibylline Prophecies. Henry Adams Bellows stated in 1936 that the author of "Völuspá" would have had knowledge of Christianity and infused it into the poem. Bellows dates the poem to the 10th century which was a transitional period between paganism and Christianity and both religions would have co-existed before Christianity was declared the official religion of Iceland and the old paganism was tolerated if practiced in private. This allowed the traditions to survive to an extent in Iceland unlike in mainland Scandinavia.


title: Völuspá

text: In March 2018, a team of medieval historians and scientists from the University of Cambridge suggested that the Icelandic poem, Vǫluspá, estimated to date from 961, was a roughly contemporary chronicle of the volcano Eldgjá's eruption in 939. [https://www.sciencealert.com/how-a-volcanic-outburst-1-000-years-ago-was-so-brutal-it-slayed-gods-ragnarok-norse-voluspa-eldgja <nowiki>[5]</nowiki>] The researchers suggested that the dramatic imagery of Eldgjá's eruption was purposefully invoked in order to accelerate the Christianization of Iceland.


title: Völuspá

text: Some have suggested that the "Dvergatal" section and the part where the "mighty one who rules over all" are later insertions to the poem. Although some have identified the latter figure with Jesus, Bellows thought this was not necessarily the case.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American writer, philosopher, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book "A Sand County Almanac" (1949), which has been translated into fourteen languages and has sold more than two million copies.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: Leopold was influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and in the movement for wilderness conservation. His ethics of nature and wildlife preservation had a profound impact on the environmental movement, with his ecocentric or holistic ethics regarding land. He emphasized biodiversity and ecology and was a founder of the science of wildlife management.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: Rand Aldo Leopold was born in Burlington, Iowa on January 11, 1887. His father, Carl Leopold, was a businessman who made walnut desks and was first cousin to his wife, Clara Starker. Charles Starker, father of Carl and uncle to Clara, was a German immigrant, educated in engineering and architecture. Rand Aldo was named after two of his father's business partners—C. W. Rand and Aldo Sommers—although he eventually dropped the use of "Rand". The Leopold family included younger siblings Mary Luize, Carl Starker, and Frederic. Leopold's first language was German, although he mastered English at an early age.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: Aldo Leopold's early life was highlighted by the outdoors. Carl would take his children on excursions into the woods and taught his oldest son woodcraft and hunting. Aldo showed an aptitude for observation, spending hours counting and cataloging birds near his home. Mary would later say of her older brother, "He was very much an outdoorsman, even in his extreme youth. He was always out climbing around the bluffs, or going down to the river, or going across the river into the woods." He attended Prospect Hill Elementary, where he ranked at the top of his class, and then, the overcrowded Burlington High School. Every August, the family vacationed in Michigan on the forested Marquette Island in Lake Huron, which the children took to exploring.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: In 1900, Gifford Pinchot, who oversaw the newly implemented Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture, donated money to Yale University to begin one of the nation's first forestry schools. Hearing of this development, the teenaged Leopold decided on forestry as a vocation. His parents agreed to let him attend The Lawrenceville School, a preparatory college in New Jersey, to improve his chances of admission to Yale. The Burlington High School principal wrote in a reference letter to the headmaster at Lawrenceville that Leopold was "as earnest a boy as we have in school... painstaking in his work... Moral character above reproach." He arrived at his new school in January 1904, shortly before he turned 17. He was considered an attentive student, although he was again drawn to the outdoors. Lawrenceville was suitably rural, and Leopold spent much time mapping the area and studying its wildlife. Leopold studied at the Lawrenceville School for a year, during which time he was accepted to Yale. Because the Yale School of Forestry granted only graduate degrees, he first enrolled in Sheffield Scientific School's preparatory forestry courses for his undergraduate studies, in New Haven, Connecticut. While Leopold was able to explore the woods and fields of Lawrenceville daily, sometimes to the detriment of his studying, at Yale he had little opportunity to do so; his studies and social life engagements made his outdoor trips few and far between.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: In 1909, Leopold was assigned to the Forest Service's District 3 in the Arizona and New Mexico territories. At first, he was a forest assistant at the Apache National Forest in the Arizona Territory. In 1911, he was transferred to the Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico. Leopold's career, which kept him in New Mexico until 1924, included developing the first comprehensive management plan for the Grand Canyon, writing the Forest Service's first game and fish handbook, and proposing Gila Wilderness Area, the first national wilderness area in the Forest Service system.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: On April 5, 1923, he was elected an associate member (now called "professional member") of the Boone and Crockett Club, a wildlife conservation organization founded by Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: In 1924, he accepted transfer to the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, and became an associate director.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: In 1933, he was appointed Professor of Game Management in the Agricultural Economics Department at the University of Wisconsin, the first such professorship of wildlife management. At the same time he was named Research Director of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum. Leopold and other members of the first Arboretum Committee initiated a research agenda around re-establishing "original Wisconsin" landscape and plant communities, particularly those that predated European settlement, such as tallgrass prairie and oak savanna.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: Under the Oberlaender Trust of the Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation, Leopold was part of the 1935 group of six U.S. Forest Service associates who toured the forests of Germany and Austria. Leopold was invited specifically to study game management, and this was his first and only time abroad. His European observations would have a significant impact on his ecological thinking.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: Leopold married Estella Bergere in northern New Mexico in 1912 and they had five children together. They lived in a modest two-story home close to the UW–Madison campus. His children followed in his footsteps as teachers and naturalists: Aldo Starker Leopold (1913–1983) was a wildlife biologist and professor at UC Berkeley; Luna B. Leopold (1915–2006) became a hydrologist and geology professor at UC Berkeley; Nina Leopold Bradley (1917–2011) was a researcher and naturalist; Aldo Carl Leopold (1919–2009) was a plant physiologist, who taught at Purdue University for 25 years; and daughter Estella Leopold (b. 1927) is a noted botanist and conservationist and professor "emerita" at the University of Washington.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: Leopold purchased 80 acres in the sand country of central Wisconsin. The once-forested region had been logged, swept by repeated fires, overgrazed by dairy cows, and left barren. He put his theories to work in the field and eventually set to work writing his best-selling "A Sand County Almanac" (1949) which was finished just prior to his death. Leopold died of a heart attack while battling a wild fire on a neighbor's property. Leopold is buried at Aspen Grove Cemetery in Burlington.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: Early on, Leopold was assigned to hunt and kill bears, wolves, and mountain lions in New Mexico. Local ranchers hated these predators because of livestock losses, but Leopold came to respect the animals. One day after fatally shooting a wolf, Leopold reached the animal and was transfixed by a "fierce green fire dying in her eyes." That experience changed him and put him on the path toward an ecocentric outlook. He developed an ecological ethic that replaced the earlier wilderness ethic that stressed the need for human dominance. His rethinking the importance of predators in the balance of nature has resulted in the return of bears and mountain lions to New Mexico wilderness areas.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: By the early 1920s, Leopold had concluded that a particular kind of preservation should be embraced in the national forests of the American West. He was prompted to this by the rampant building of roads to accommodate the "proliferation of the automobile" and the related increasingly heavy recreational demands placed on public lands. He was the first to employ the term "wilderness" to describe such preservation. Over the next two decades, he added ethical and scientific rationales to his defense of the wilderness concept. Leopold believed that it is easier to maintain wilderness than to create it. In one essay, he rhetorically asked, "Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?" Leopold saw a progress of ethical sensitivity from interpersonal relationships, to relationships to society as a whole, to relationships with the land, leading to a steady diminution of actions based on expediency, conquest, and self-interest. Leopold thus rejected the utilitarianism of conservationists such as Theodore Roosevelt.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: By the 1930s, Leopold had become one of the first Americans to publish extensively on the startup discipline of wildlife management. He advocated the scientific management of wildlife habitats by both public and private landholders rather than a reliance on game refuges, hunting laws, and other methods intended to protect specific species of desired game. In his 1933 book "Game Management", Leopold defined the science of wildlife management as "the art of making land produce sustained annual crops of wild game for recreational use." But, as Curt Meine has pointed out, he also considered it to be a technique for restoring and maintaining diversity in the environment.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: The concept of "wilderness" also took on a new meaning; Leopold no longer saw it as a hunting or recreational ground, but as an arena for a healthy biotic community, including wolves and mountain lions. In 1935, he helped found the Wilderness Society, dedicated to expanding and protecting the nation's wilderness areas. He regarded the society as "one of the focal points of a new attitude—an intelligent humility toward Man's place in nature." Science writer Connie Barlow says Leopold wrote eloquently from a perspective that today would be called Religious Naturalism.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: Leopold's nature writing is notable for its simple directness. His portrayals of various natural environments through which he had moved, or had known for many years, displayed impressive intimacy with what exists and happens in nature. This includes detailed diaries and journals of his Forest Service activity, hunting and field experience, as well as observations and activities at his Sand County farm. He offered frank criticism of the harm he believed was frequently done to natural systems (such as land) out of a sense of a culture or society's sovereign ownership over the land base – eclipsing any sense of a community of life to which humans belong. He felt the security and prosperity resulting from "mechanization" now gives people the time to reflect on the preciousness of nature and to learn more about what happens there; however, he also wrote, "Theoretically, the mechanization of farming ought to cut the farmer's chains, but whether it really does is debatable."


title: Aldo Leopold

text: The book was published in 1949, shortly after Leopold's death. One of the well-known quotes from the book which clarifies his land ethic is,


title: Aldo Leopold

text: A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. (p.262)


title: Aldo Leopold

text: The concept of a trophic cascade is put forth in the chapter, "Thinking Like a Mountain", wherein Leopold realizes that killing a predator wolf carries serious implications for the rest of the ecosystem — a conclusion that found sympathetic appreciation generations later:


title: Aldo Leopold

text: In "The Land Ethic", a chapter in "A Sand County Almanac", Leopold delves into conservation in "The Ecological Conscience" section. He wrote: "Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land." He noted that conservation guidelines at the time boiled down to: "obey the law, vote right, join some organizations, and practice what conservation is profitable on your own land; the government will do the rest." (p. 243–244)


title: Aldo Leopold

text: The "Aldo Leopold Foundation" of Baraboo, Wisconsin, was founded in 1982 by Aldo and Estella Leopold's five children as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit conservation organization whose mission is "to foster the land ethic through the legacy of Aldo Leopold." The Aldo Leopold Foundation owns and manages the original Aldo Leopold Shack and Farm and 300 surrounding acres, in addition to several other parcels. Its headquarters is the green-built "Leopold Center" where it conducts educational and land stewardship programs. The foundation also acts as the executor of Leopold's literary estate, encourages scholarship on Leopold, and serves as a clearinghouse for information regarding Leopold, his work, and his ideas. It provides interpretive resources and tours for thousands of visitors annually, distributes a curriculum about how to use Leopold's writing and ideas in environmental education. The center maintains a robust website and numerous print resources. In 2012, in collaboration with the United States Forest Service, the foundation and the Center for Humans and Nature released the first high-definition, full-length film about Leopold, entitled "Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time." The film aired on public television stations across the nation and won a Midwest regional Emmy award in the documentary category.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture was established in 1987 at Iowa State University in Ames. It was named in honor of Leopold. Since its founding, it has pioneered new forms of sustainable agriculture practices.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: The U.S. Forest Service established the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute at the University of Montana, Missoula in 1993. It is "the only Federal research group in the United States dedicated to the development and dissemination of knowledge needed to improve management of wilderness, parks, and similarly protected areas."


title: Aldo Leopold

text: The Aldo Leopold Neighborhood Historic District, which includes Leopold's former home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: The Aldo Leopold Legacy Trail System, a system of 42 state trails in Wisconsin, was created by the state in 2007.


title: Aldo Leopold

text: The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Iowa, created through the 1987 Iowa Groundwater Protection Act is committed to "new ways to farm profitably while conserving natural resources as well as reducing negative environmental and social impacts".


title: Aldo Leopold

text: An organization, the Leopold Heritage Group, is "dedicated to promoting the global legacy of Aldo Leopold in his hometown of Burlington, Iowa."


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: The COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Hong Kong on 23 January 2020. Confirmed cases were generally transferred to Princess Margaret Hospital's Infectious Disease Centre for isolation and centralised treatment. On 5 February, after a five-day strike by front-line medical workers, the Hong Kong government closed all but three border control points – Hong Kong International Airport, Shenzhen Bay Control Point, and Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge Control Point remaining open.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: Hong Kong was relatively unscathed by the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak and had a flatter epidemic curve than most other places, which observers consider remarkable given its status as an international transport hub. Furthermore, its proximity to China and its millions of mainland visitors annually would make it vulnerable. Some experts now believe the habit of wearing masks in public since the SARS epidemic of 2003 may have helped keep its confirmed infections at 845, with four deaths, by the beginning of April. In a study published in April 2020 in the "Lancet", the authors expressed their belief that border restrictions, quarantine and isolation, social distancing, and behavioural changes such as wearing masks likely all played a part in the containment of the disease up to the end of March. Others attributed the success to critical thinking of citizens who have become accustomed to distrusting the competence and political motivations of the government, the World Health Organization, and the Chinese Communist Party.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: After a much smaller second wave in late March and April 2020 caused by overseas returnees rushing to beat mandatory quarantine, Hong Kong saw a substantial uptick in COVID cases in July, with more than a hundred cases being reported several days in a row until early August. Experts attributed this third wave to imported cases – sea crew, aircrew members, and domestic helpers made up the majority of 3rd wave infections. In late November 2020 the city entered a fourth wave, called "severe" by Chief Executive Carrie Lam. The initial driver behind the fourth wave was a group of dance clubs in which wealthy, predominantly female Hong Kongers danced together and had dance lessons with mostly younger male dance instructors. Measures taken in response included a suspension of school classroom teaching until the end of the year, and an order for restaurants to seat only two persons per table and close at 10:00 p.m. taking effect on 2 December; a further tightening of restrictions saw, among other measures, a 6 pm closing time of restaurants starting from 10 December, and a mandate for authorities to order partial lockdowns in locations with multiple cases of COVID-19 until all residents were tested. From late January 2021, the government pursued repeatedly locked down residential buildings to conduct mass testing. A free mass vaccination program with the Sinovac vaccine and Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine was launched on 26 February. The government sought to counter the vaccine hesitancy by material incentives, which led to an acceleration of vaccinations in June.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: Hong Kong was one of few countries and territories to pursue a "zero-COVID" elimination strategy, by essentially closing all its borders and, until February 2022, subjecting even mild and asymptomatic cases to hospitalisation, and sometimes isolation extending over several weeks. The fifth, Omicron variant driven wave of the pandemic emerging in late December 2021 caused the health system to be stretched to its limits, the mandatory hospitalization to be abandoned, and led several experts to question the zero-COVID strategy. Some even considered it counterproductive, due to it having nourished hopes that the city would eventually become free of the virus, and thus having led to a low COVID-19 vaccination rate in the city. Most of the deaths in the fifth wave were among the unvaccinated elderly.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: The outbreak of the pandemic evoked memories as the city was at the forefront of the SARS epidemic in 2003, when over 1,700 people contracted the virus and almost 300 people died locally. The COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan took place against the backdrop of widespread and intense political conflict and civil unrest fed by anti-government sentiment, since June 2019. Carrie Lam, the city's Chief Executive, was reported in May 2020 to have a negative approval rating of 80 percent. The District Council elections in November, widely regarded as a proxy referendum over the protest movement's demands, saw the pro-democracy camp achieve their biggest landslide victory in Hong Kong's history, where they took control of 17 out of 18 districts. The economy of the city has been reeling under the effects of the unrest, as the number of mainland visitors fell and business confidence suffered, and the city slipped into recession.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: Lam had invoked the Emergency Regulations Ordinance on 4 October 2019 to impose a law to ban wearing face masks in public gatherings. The law would come to contradict later measures to control the spread of the virus, and has been widely ignored by citizens, who have learnt to be mistrustful of the government.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: As the coronavirus crisis escalated in February and March 2020, the scale of the protests dwindled. Protest activities continued regularly in Tseung Kwan O, Yuen Long and Mong Kok every month. Large-scale protests gave way to the COVID-19 pandemic, but smaller scale protests in various districts resumed upon easing of virus restrictions. Through its Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance, the Hong Kong government imposed a four-person limit for public gatherings. Many observers believed that the COVID-19 pandemic had provided cover for an increase of arrests related to the protests.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: Upon learning of the outbreak, the Hong Kong government required disclosure by those who had been to wet markets in Wuhan. It widened the criteria for notification on 3 January – to anyone who had visited Wuhan within 14 days before the onset of any respiratory symptoms of illness would need to inform health authorities.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 4 January, Hong Kong activated 'serious response level' for infectious diseases as Wuhan pneumonia outbreak escalates. On the same day, the Hospital Authority announced that the public hospitals admitted three people who had been to Wuhan in the past 14 days. Specimens were sent to the Department of Health for testing, which turned out to be negative for the disease from Wuhan.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: Although Wuhan health authorities said there was "no obvious evidence" of human-to-human transmission of the then-unidentified virus, medical experts in Hong Kong urged mainland authorities to be more forthcoming with Wuhan patient information that could aid epidemiological study. University of Hong Kong infectious diseases expert Dr Ho Pak-Leung suspected such transmission had happened among cases in Wuhan, and urged "the most stringent" precautionary measures. However, press reported that border checks at the West Kowloon high-speed rail terminal were not yet operational.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 8 January, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) added "Severe respiratory disease associated with a novel infectious agent" to their list of notifiable diseases to expand their authority on quarantine. The Hong Kong government also shortened hospital visits and made it a requirement for visitors to wear face masks. Screening was tightened at airports and train stations with connections to Wuhan. In the first week of 2020, 30 unwell travellers from Wuhan were tested. Most had other respiratory viruses.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 22 January, Hong Kong confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus. A 39-year-old man from mainland China who had travelled from Shenzhen and who arrived in Hong Kong by high-speed rail developed symptoms of pneumonia. Resident in Wuhan, he had arrived in Shenzhen by highspeed rail with his family, from where he had travelled on to West Kowloon station in Hong Kong. He tested positive for the virus and was hospitalised in Princess Margaret Hospital, Kowloon. The same day, a 56-year-old man from Ma On Shan, who had visited Wuhan in the previous week, also tested positive. These two cases were listed as "Highly Suspected Cases", they were confirmed positive the following day.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 23 January, the Hong Kong government designated the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village in Sai Kung as a quarantine centre. The Hong Kong Tourism Board cancelled the Lunar New Year Cup and a four-day Lunar New Year carnival, citing concerns over the virus outbreak.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 24 January, health authorities confirmed three more cases, all these patients had being to Wuhan. The 4th and 5th cases were a 62-year-old woman and her husband aged 63 who had both arrived in Hong Kong on 22 January. The couple attempted to escape from Prince of Wales Hospital after learning that they would have to be quarantined, but failed when the police were called.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 25 January, the Hong Kong government declared the viral outbreak as an "emergency" – the highest warning tier.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: The city's largest amusement parks, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Ocean Park Hong Kong, and wax museum Madame Tussauds Hong Kong closed from 26 January, until further notice. Primary and secondary schools were originally set to resume on 17 February, were stay suspended until 2 March. They eventually remained closed until after Easter.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 26 January morning, "Fai Ming Estate", an unoccupied public estate in Fanling, in Hong Kong's New Territories was earmarked as a quarantine facility for people who may have been exposed to Wuhan coronavirus. In the afternoon, hundreds of Hong Kong citizens blocked roads leading to the building with bricks and other debris. The lobby of the newly built residential building was set alight in the night.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 28 January, Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam announced enhanced measures to stop the novel coronavirus' spread, but short of closing all boundary control points.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: 2) All cross-border ferry services, flights and cross-border bus services from mainland China were reduced by 50%.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: 3) The services of the West Kowloon Station, Hung Hom station, China Ferry Terminal and Tuen Mun Ferry Terminal control points were suspended.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: With the central government's agreement to suspend issuing individual visitors permits for mainland residents to Hong Kong, the usual mainland visitors coming to Hong Kong was reduced up to 50%.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: The Government also stopped Hubei residents and people who visited the province in the past 14 days, except Hong Kong residents, from entering the city.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: Many Hospital Authority staff were dissatisfied with the government for failing to seal off entry points between Hong Kong and mainland China, and planned to go on strike on 3 February.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On the home front, all government employees (except those providing essential/emergency services) were instructed to work from home. All facilities overseen by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), including all public museums, libraries and sports centres and venues, were closed until further notice as a precaution, on 29 January. The closure of these facilities was extended until 2 March 2020 on 14 February.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: The government also appealed to employers to make flexible work arrangements for employees in accordance with their operational needs.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: In January 2020, the number of confirmed reported COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong was 13. There were 11 imported cases, one possible local case and one epidemiologically linked with possibly local case.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: Amid intense public pressure to stop anyone crossing into the city from mainland China, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced new border closures over the Wuhan virus, but fell short of a complete sealing off of the city. Lo Wu, Lok Ma Chau and Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal were shut as of midnight of 3 February. Three borders which remain opened were the city's Chap Lap Kok international airport, the Shenzhen Bay and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 4 February, the CHP reported Hong Kong's first death, the world's second outside mainland China, of a 39-year-old patient, the 13th case.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 9 February, Hong Kong confirmed three more cases with two from the same family, bringing the total number to 29. It was also announced on the same day that the passengers and crew of the World Dream cruise ship were allowed to leave after a check revealed that they were negative for the coronavirus and had no history of being in close contact with eight disembarked passengers who were tested positive for the virus. On 19 February, a 70-year-old man with pre-existing illnesses became the second person to die of COVID-19 in Hong Kong. On 24 February, seven new cases were identified that included two evacuees from "Diamond Princess", a cruise ship quarantined in Japan, bringing the total number of cases to 81.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: Hong Kong's financial secretary announced HK$10,000 cash handouts for all adult permanent residents among raft of relief measures. These measures came amid negative economic growth since the second half of last year and the city's first deficit in 15 years as the economy took a hit from the US-China trade war, large-scale protests and the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: In view of the latest COVID-19 developments, the 2020 Bun Festival, originally scheduled on April, was cancelled for the first time in more than a century.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: As of 2 March, Hong Kong had reached 100 confirmed Coronavirus cases. Two new cases were confirmed that day which include a brother of a COVID-19 patient and a woman from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 20 March, Hong Kong recorded 48 new coronavirus infections, the biggest daily tally since testing began, bringing the total to 256 confirmed cases. Of these cases, 36 had a travel history. Gabriel Leung, member of an expert panel on the viral outbreak, warned the public about letting down their vigilance prematurely as Hong Kong was at the "highest risk" since the start of the pandemic.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 22 March, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology published an article on Multilevel Antimicrobial Polymer (MAP-1), a surface coating spray that inactivates viruses, bacteria and spores and that was successfully used in the combat of COVID-19 in public places like schools, shopping malls and school buses.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 25 March, Hong Kong closed its border to all incoming non-residents arriving from overseas. Transiting through Hong Kong was no longer allowed either. All returning residents, regardless of point of departure, were subject to the Compulsory Quarantine Order, which required all to stay at a reported quarantine premise (either home or hotel) for 14 days. Tracking devices were employed to enforce the order. All returning residents from the United States, the UK, and continental Europe were required to go through enhanced screening and submit saliva sample for COVID-19 testing. The office of Chief Executive Carrie Lam warned that an increase in confirmed cases would "inevitably" occur as long as Hong Kong citizens continued to return from abroad.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 27 March, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam banned indoor and outdoor public gatherings of more than four people, for 14 days starting from 29 March. Other regulations enacted, which took effect at the same time, included requiring restaurants to operate at half their capacity and to set tables at least 1.5 meters apart.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 31 March, The Centre for Health Protection identified a small cluster of COVID-19 cases linked to a karaoke bar. This led the government to order a temporary closure of many types of entertainment venues for 14 days from 1 April, to help slow the spread of COVID-19.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: Confusion over the government's announcement of the temporary closure of a list of entertainment venues, led the public to believe that other venues such as beauty parlors, massage parlors and club houses would have to be closed as well. However the government clarified that such establishments would be allowed to remain open subject to businesses providing hand sanitiser to customers, as well as requiring customers to wear a mask and have their temperature taken while inside the business venue.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: At a press briefing on 21 April, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that the social distancing rules, which already been extended previously, would be extended beyond 23 April by 14 days. Shortly after the press briefing, the Food and Health Bureau said that the cap on the number of customers at 50 per cent capacity would be relaxed.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 28 April, Hong Kong Public Libraries announced a partial reopening of some of its locations from 6 May.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: In late April, researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said that a newly developed antiviral coating may provide up to 90 days of "significant" protection against COVID-19. The disinfectant is encapsulated in heat-sensitive polymers and released when there is human contact with a surface such as a handrail or elevator button.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 1 May, no major Labour Day demonstrations were authorised as the gathering limit of four persons was upheld. Police handed out 18 penalty tickets for breach of social-distancing rules at street booths and at a singalong event in a mall.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 5 May, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that the cap on public gatherings would be raised from four to eight people, and that a number of businesses including beauty salons and gyms would be allowed to reopen subject to precautions. The number of people allowed to use a single table in restaurants and catering facilities was likewise increased from four to eight. Schools will resume classes in stages from 27 May, starting with secondary schools and moving progressively to younger ages.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: By 30 May, a total of sixteen passengers arriving in Hong Kong from Pakistan on Qatar Airways flight QR818 on 28 May had tested positive. Also on 30 May, a 34-year-old woman with no recent travel history tested preliminary positive.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: The Hong Kong Government extended the social distancing measures for two more weeks, until 18 June, after six people were confirmed infected, including a female employee at Kerry Logistics warehouse in Kwai Chung, her husband, two colleagues and the paramedic. The Hong Kong Government later decided to evacuate some residents in Luk Chuen House at Lek Yuen Estate in Sha Tin, where the confirmed cases were found.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 8 June, the government announced the re-opening of Ocean Park on 13 June and Hong Kong Disneyland on 18 June. Both theme parks suffered from financial difficulties during the pandemic. Trade fairs and conventions, which were suspended since the beginning of the year, will be hosted again in Hong Kong starting with the Hong Kong Book Fair on 15 and 21 July.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: There was an increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases in July, following a 21-day period of no confirmed local cases. A cook in a restaurant confirmed positive on 5 July; a person from Ping Shek Estate and a nurse from a nearby clinic were diagnosed with the coronavirus the following day. However, on 7 July 16 people were locally infected from multiple districts, the highest local increase in cases since the start of the pandemic in Hong Kong. On 9 July 34 locally infected cases were reported, with new social gathering restrictions enforced from the following midnight. However, with the addition of 41 locally infected cases reported on 13 July the Hong Kong government further reduced the limit on public gatherings from 50 to 4. A notable cluster of 44 patients linked to a home for the elderly emerged; Tsz Wan Shan district also recorded more than 150 cases.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: A total of 108 new cases were confirmed on 19 July – the highest since March: 83 cases were local in origin, while 25 were imported. The majority of the locally transmitted cases cannot be traced back to a single group gathering or event. That day, the government announced a raft of measures hoping to slow the spread: civil servants are to work from home and only emergency and essential public services will remain open; eat-in restaurants will be banned from 6pm to 5am, and mask-wearing in indoor public places is henceforth mandatory.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: The growth in the number of patients during the week to 25 July put pressure on isolation facilities in public hospitals, which were reported to be running close to maximum capacity. Carrie Lam announced that she had requested help from mainland health authorities, and that testing capacity would be increased with their help; areas of AsiaWorld-Expo would be upgraded to serve as a "mobile cabin hospital". While pro-Beijing political groups have requested medical personnel from officials from the liaison office, members of the medical profession expressed reservations that those sent are not licensed to practise medicine locally; furthermore there were concerns that cooperation would not be straightforward because of language, political and cultural issues. The liaison office criticised their "arrogance and prejudice" in resisting the offer of support, and effectively putting political consideration above people's safety.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 28 July, Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan admitted that there was "empirical evidence" that quarantine exemption policies for over 30 groups of inbound travellers – including cross-boundary goods vehicle drivers, aircraft crew members, government officials on duty, and numerous company executives – had contributed to the recent increase in coronavirus cases. Experts had been pointing to such loopholes as a likely cause already a week earlier, mentioning in addition returning domestic workers. The 118 new cases announced that day heralded the eighth consecutive day of three-digit infections per day. Social-distancing rules were further toughened by limiting public gatherings to two people; banning eating-in at restaurants; and making the wearing of face masks compulsory in all public places. However, the ban on eating-in was highly unpopular with the public amid viral images of workers eating their lunchboxes on roadsides in the heat and rain. It ended in a government U-turn after 48 hours.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: A team of mainland health officials charged with carrying out COVID-19 testing arrived in Hong Kong at the beginning of the month, ostensibly to step up the testing capacity. Although details have not yet been finalised by the time of the team's arrival, the free voluntary universal testing programme aims to test all residents within two weeks, to quickly detect silent transmissions in light of the rapid rise in cases, according to the government.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: On 17 August, Hong Kong banned Air India from flying to the city for two weeks over imported COVID-19 cases. The Hong Kong Government invoked emergency public health powers after linking 11 imported coronavirus infections to a 14 August flight from New Delhi. "The fact 11 passengers tested positive on the same flight shows the lab tests back in India are not very reliable," a government source said. "The airline has to do deep cleaning [on its planes] and make sure it won't happen again on future flights before they can be resumed."


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: The government announced further relaxation of social distancing measures. Among them, the dine-in time of restaurants was extended to midnight, and bars, pubs and some listed premises that were not open earlier could be reopened. The relevant regulations will take effect on Friday for a period of seven days.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: The Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan said at a press conference today that the epidemic has continued to ease and gradually stabilised. In addition, the universal community testing program has identified many invisible patients in the community, which will help further stabilise the epidemic. Therefore, the government is confident to continue to relax gradually. Social distancing measures.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: The latest ban on dining in restaurants is from 0:00 to 4:59 am, the number of customers in catering premises shall not exceed half the number of seats in the premises and the maximum four people sitting at the same table shall remain unchanged.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: Bars, pubs and catering premises selling or supplying alcohol can be reopened, but the number of customers shall not exceed half the number of seats on the premises, and no more than two persons sitting at the same table.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: Some of the listed premises that involved a higher risk of infection and failed to open in the first three stages of relaxation measures, namely bathrooms, public entertainment venues including theme parks and exhibition venues, party rooms, nightclubs or nightclubs, karaoke venues and The swimming pool can also be reopened, but it must comply with relevant regulations and restrictions, and strictly implement infection control measures.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: The government has also relaxed the restrictions that currently apply to certain listed premises, including restrictions on wearing masks and group arrangements in fitness centres and sports premises.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: As for the number of people gathered in groups in public places, the maximum number of people is four, and the requirement to wear masks in public transport and public places also continues to take effect.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong

text: Sophia Chan pointed out that the virus will not disappear before effective vaccines appear. Many experts also predict that the fourth wave of epidemics will break out in winter. After the government summarises the experience of responding to the third wave of epidemics and the actual local situation, it is expected that social interaction will not be greatly relaxed in the future. Distance measures to the extent of June.