Anthony Cheung

Opinion | Hong Kong fourth wave: time and trust in short supply for Carrie Lam’s government to rein in coronavirus

After some early successes, the Hong Kong government is struggling to balance public health, the economic impact and social acceptance in its pandemic response

It cannot muster the capacity to fight the virus without the public on its side, but if it fails to contain the pandemic, public support will dwindle further

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Anthony Cheung

Published: 6:45am, 22 Dec 2020Updated: 7:16am, 22 Dec 2020

A pandemic can make or break a government and its leader. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won the October election by a landslide because of her “go hard, go early” approach in effectively eliminating the local spread of Covid-19 after a second lockdown.

In contrast, US President Donald Trump might have won his second term if not for his dismal Covid-19 performance. Brad Parscale, a campaign adviser, reportedly told him, “Sir, regardless, this [coronavirus] is coming. It’s the only thing that could take down your presidency.” And it did.

Hong Kong’s relatively impressive performance in the early phase of the pandemic was once thought to be a turning point for Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, whose fate had been haunted by political unrest since mid-2019. At the end of the year, however, it appears she is trapped in a no-win battle against Covid-19.

Learning from the bitter lesson of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2003, Hong Kong has displayed community-wide crisis awareness and speedy emergency response. Government efforts have improved, with better coordination of the public and private sectors.

Both the government and public health system are largely efficient, yet the administration has not received full credit for its arduous task. Crisis leadership has been hampered by low public trust, making it hard to enact more coercive and contentious measures.

03:38

Departures for mainland China increase amid Hong Kong’s fourth wave of Covid-19 infections

Until June, in terms of infection and death rates, Hong Kong was near the top end of the international table. Since then, the city has slipped. The pandemic is now in its fourth wave with more untraceable local infections.