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Coronavirus Hong Kong
OpinionComment
Peter Kammerer
Peter Kammerer

Shades Off | If Hong Kong continues with its zero-Covid policy, it will become a shell of its former self

  • Struggling to contain Omicron yet unwilling to give up on its zero-Covid approach, Hong Kong lacks a clear way out of the pandemic
  • The result is the worst of both worlds: limited freedom to travel or socialise and a heightened vulnerability to outbreaks

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Health officials wearing personal protective equipment sit outside a residential building at the Kwai Chung Estate in Hong Kong, on January 23, after the government placed buildings at the public housing complex under lockdown. Photo: Bloomberg
Peter Kammerer
Covid-19 has been with us for two years, but I have only met two people who have been infected. One is my son who lives in Paris, who has just come down with the virus for a second time. The first time was the Alpha variant and now it’s Omicron.
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It’s hardly surprising given that there are an average of 320,000 cases in France each day, meaning that every person in the country of 67.3 million will potentially have had one type or another in 210 days.

France, like many other countries, has decided to live with the coronavirus. Omicron, far more transmissible than previous variants, is spreading like wildfire around the world. My son got it even though he has been previously infected with the disease and is double vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. His only symptom is a slight dry cough.

France has adopted some mainland-China-like practices with its prevention strategy, requiring all citizens to use a smartphone app showing vaccination and testing status to enter venues like government buildings, restaurants, bars, fitness centres and schools.

Mask-wearing and hand cleansing are commonplace in urban areas, but the virus is still so rampant despite a countrywide vaccination rate of 78 per cent that it is inevitable people will get reinfected.

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Compare that to Hong Kong. The zero-tolerance approach adopted by Beijing is largely followed in the city of 7.4 million people. There are differences when it comes to enforcement; the “Leave Home Safe” tracing app is nowhere near as invasive as the mainland’s version and primitive by French standards.
Its ability to track and inform about infections is so limited that when clusters occur, health officials have to resort to credit and travel cards and CCTV footage to determine close contacts. Only from February 24 will proof of vaccination be necessary to eat at a restaurant, work out at a gym and enter a host of other places.
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