Letters | Why will Hong Kong coronavirus outbreak teach Carrie Lam to listen when months of turmoil did not?

February 3 marked the start of a medical workers’ strike in Hong Kong, a familiar protest tactic in the city. Whether it was used in protest against an extradition bill or the authorities’ response to the coronavirus outbreak, the objective was to urge an ineffective government to listen to the people.

Government measures to control the coronavirus have been undeniably slow, bureaucratic and sometimes confusing. On January 23, the director of health said it was not necessary to wear masks unless people had symptoms of illness, yet doctors warned that carriers of the virus may not show any symptoms.

Then, a citywide panic erupted over the shortage of protective masks, fanned by distrust in Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s regime.

The first case of coronavirus in Hong Kong was a mainland man who arrived here on January 21 by high-speed rail from Wuhan, transiting in Shenzhen. Of the 17 confirmed cases in Hong Kong (as of February 4), at least seven took the high-speed rail to Hong Kong before the closure of the West Kowloon rail station on January 30, eight days after the first patient was confirmed on January 22 to be carrying the virus.

On requiring visitors to make health declarations at the rail station, on January 20 such forms were deemed unnecessary, but then implemented on January 23. Such backtracking simply undermines the legitimacy of the Hong Kong government which clearly underestimated the threat posed by the coronavirus.