Lonely, depressed, lacking mental health help: Covid-19 pandemic’s toll on Hong Kong’s working class, in their own words
- During the Covid-19 pandemic, people in Hong Kong were subject to some of the strictest regulations, quarantine and travel restrictions in the world
- In her book Pandemic Minds, Kate Whitehead tells the pandemic stories of working class Hongkongers who had little or no official help with their mental health
The Covid-19 pandemic laid bare a stark divide between the haves and have-nots in Hong Kong. Those with means transitioned to remote work, ensconced in spacious homes that accommodated comfortable work and study set-ups.
They could afford hotel quarantines, and travelled when the rest of the world opened up. And if they needed mental health support, private therapy was readily available.
But for the working class, especially those in manual labour and the service industry, the pandemic brought job losses and financial insecurity.
Many lacked savings and were forced to endure cramped living conditions that strained family relationships. Those who sought mental health support through the public system faced a daunting 40-month waiting list.
I spent four days just lying under the canvas, not getting up to eat or anything. I thought about ending my life – it would be very easy to do it quickly
Two Hongkongers who spent the pandemic in the city recall in my book Pandemic Minds: Covid-19 and Mental Health in Hong Kong what we may have forgotten, perhaps not absorbed, and from which we have questionably healed. The following are extracts from the book:
In mid-March 2022, Hong Kong recorded the highest number of Covid-19 deaths per population size in the world, a rate of more than 25 deaths per 100,000 residents.
