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HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) – As Hong Kong battles a new wave of coronavirus infections with another round of social restrictions, a sense of fatigue with the confusing and inconsistent nature of the city’s pandemic response is settling among business owners. and residents.
Although the Asian financial center has so far emerged relatively unscathed (the Covid-19 case rate stands at just 81 cases per 100,000 people in a densely populated territory with a population of seven million), the city has encountered more waves than the most other venues and is entering its fourth round of start and stop restrictions.
“Hong Kong has certainly been lucky with the pandemic so far. What has been missing is a clear public roadmap on how and when the restrictions will be implemented and when the rules will be relaxed,” said Associate Professor Nicholas Thomas, a specialist. in health security expert from the City University of Hong Kong.
The coronavirus has been an unpredictable and volatile enemy, which justifies an agile and changeable reaction from governments. But as the pandemic approaches its first anniversary, Hong Kong residents and business owners increasingly look with envy for the structured response systems that exist in regional neighbors like New Zealand, South Korea and Singapore.
The comparatively erratic response from the former British colony is deepening the crisis in an economy already on its knees from months of restless street protests followed by the pandemic, they say.
The sharp increase in new local cases in the last week is related to social dance venues, yet officials have announced the closure of bars, karaoke rooms and massage parlors. As in previous rounds, restrictions are imposed for a week or two at a time, leaving business owners in a state of suspended animation and unable to plan for the long term.
“At the moment, I’m waiting on Friday afternoon to see if they are closing any more classrooms,” said Stephanie Holding, a mother of three who runs her own home-based business. He would rather see a system that lets people “know what is affected and when,” he said.
Hong Kong says it has a flexible approach to “lift and lift” virus restrictions based on advice from medical advisers. But other “high-risk” businesses, like gyms and restaurants, don’t know when they’ll be asked to close, and only a few need to enforce a little-used health code enforcement before allowing customers in.
To add to the confusion, education and childcare services for younger children were also closed again earlier this month, but due to an outbreak of the common cold and not Covid-19.
Elsewhere with different phases or alert levels that determine which restrictions are activated at what stage of the infection, “we know we have reached this level and this is what will happen next,” said Allan Zeman, economic advisor to Hong La Director. Kong executive Carrie Lam and the president of Lan Kwai Fong Group, a major owner in the city’s bar district.
“You get the feeling that ‘this is what we have to do to get back to zero,’ instead of making ad hoc decisions week after week.”
‘Zero scientific basis’
The government defends its approach by saying that the public alert level systems used elsewhere do not work in Hong Kong. Dr. Lam Ching Choi, a physician and member of the Executive Council advising the CEO, said he did not believe that a “very structured approach” would be adequate for what he touts as “the freest economy in the world.”
Instead, Dr. Lam compared Hong Kong’s approach to “precision medicine” and said the goal was to maintain normality as much as possible rather than resort to blanket blocks.
“So when you walk around our city, you don’t really feel like Covid-19 is happening, other than wearing masks.”
The risk is that this “precision” is seen as arbitrary by companies: With no current virus clusters directly linked to the bar industry, the latest decision on bar closings has “zero scientific basis,” said David McEwan, owner. from Bobby’s Rabble, a bar in the Central district.
Although bars and nightclubs are generally considered high-risk venues in all countries, companies say they do not understand the level at which they will be selected and what circumstances would allow them to reopen.
“This is one of the busiest times of the year and we have no idea if it is a week or there will be an extension each week like last time,” said Ravi Beryar, managing director of Liquid Management, which operates two nightlife venues in Hong Kong’s main bar districts.
Beryar and others say they would like a more methodical and transparent approach similar to other countries in the Asia-Pacific region that have been among the most successful in the world in containing the spread of Covid-19.
New Zealand, for example, introduced a four-tier alert system near the start of the pandemic and has been widely praised for its clarity in communicating the system to its citizens. Singapore announced in May a three-phase roadmap for the gradual resumption of normal life.
South Korea, which has been reporting its highest number of new cases in eight months, has also been continuously enforcing and relaxing social restrictions in response to the case numbers. However, their strategy is dictated by a five-step system whereby certain measures are triggered when cases reach a certain threshold.
Currently, the country is in level 2 restrictions, which means that restaurants can only operate limited hours and high-risk facilities are closed.
New Zealand tops Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Rankings, which assesses the success of countries and cities in controlling the coronavirus with minimal disruptions to everyday life. South Korea ranks fourth, while Singapore ranks eleventh, one place ahead of Hong Kong.
“While the real world is inevitably messier than a laboratory, having a clear structure that is above politics helps build confidence in response strategies,” said CUHK Professor Thomas.
School closings – third round
Another group of people frustrated with Hong Kong’s response are parents, who have endured up to three rounds of school closings this year. The latest, the closure of only nurseries and kindergartens, followed by primary one to three, was triggered by an outbreak of upper respiratory tract infections, for example, and not by the coronavirus.
“In other countries, they keep schools open at all costs,” said Rosheen Rodwell, a mother of three, who said government communication has been lacking in terms of whether they are prioritizing schools. “People are prepared to get on board and make sacrifices if they understand why.”
Dr Lam, the government adviser, clarified that the general strategy now is to keep schools open, having learned from epidemiological studies around the world that it is “relatively safe” to do so. The recent closure of the kindergartens, he said, was necessary, as upper respiratory infections are indistinguishable from Covid-19 without testing, and the plan is to reopen them as soon as possible.
Dr David Heymann, an infectious disease expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said Hong Kong still has a much greater ability to trace contacts and break groups than many other countries.
“Actually, they are finding where the transmission occurs, they are turning it off and then cautiously reopening it to see if the transmission increases or not.”
As pandemic fatigue increases around the world, people need more information as the cycle repeats.
“Transparency is the most important thing. If governments are transparent as to why they are closing, then yes, people will understand better,” he said.
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