Letters | No world-class events can come to Hong Kong under our Covid-19 policy

Readers discuss the dearth of international sports and cultural events in Hong Kong, the difficulty of booking flights out of the city and why frontline civil servants deserve a bigger pay rise

Coronavirus Hong Kong

Letters

Published: 11:30am, 30 Jul 2022

Why you can trust SCMP

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at [email protected] or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification.

The government’s King Canute policy on Covid-19 remains bewildering. The rest of the developed world has relegated the virus to where it belongs, together with all the other risks that we deal with day to day but which don’t stop us dead in our tracks.

Airports overseas are struggling with the massive upsurge in regional travel. Meanwhile, our own airport is like a morgue.

Sports and cultural events overseas are back, and life has very much returned to normal in the rest of the world. Yes, a lot of people still get Covid, like any other virus, but they generally get over it quickly without any serious consequences and they don’t make a big deal about it.

Elsewhere in Asia, we recent saw Liverpool and Manchester United football clubs play to adoring supporters at packed stadiums in Thailand and Singapore. It is unthinkable that with our current administration, such events could take place in Hong Kong, as they would have in previous years. Nor can any other world-class events possibly take place in Hong Kong, whether sporting, cultural or commercial in nature, until the current policies are aligned with international standards.

So why are we so different from those countries? Have they got it all wrong and we alone are right?

I write this from quarantine. Having obtained a negative PCR test before boarding my return flight to Hong Kong and then another negative PCR test on arrival, I am still deemed to be such an incredible risk to the community that (at great expense) I need to be quarantined for a week, denied all contact with the outside world, and denied my rights to work, socialise and stay in my own home.

The literature provided to me on arrival at my quarantine location threatens me with fines and even imprisonment should I step outside my room.

Meanwhile, every day some 3,000-4,000 people in Hong Kong are testing positive, are not significantly sick, and most of whom are allowed to self-isolate at home, plus of course all the others who choose not to report.

I challenge anyone to provide a logical and science-based justification for this policy.

J.P. Walsh, Wan Chai

Booking flights out of Hong Kong is maddening

Thanks to the draconian rules imposed on airlines in the name of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, Hong Kong has lost its status as an international air hub. This fact finally sank in when I tried to book a flight to London.

I recently spent many fruitless hours calling travel agents and surfing the net for a ticket, but to no avail. Which self-respecting airline would want to subject itself to having its crew quarantined for days for the dubious honour of flying to Hong Kong? It makes zero sense. The damage from this chain reaction is even worse when businesspeople are involved.

Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau talks a lot of sense and is making positive moves. As a medical man practising evidence-based medicine, he is the last person not to learn anything from the world out there on Covid-19, but politics trumps medical facts.

Any one having better luck with booking flights out of Hong Kong, please share your good fortune in this column.

Lam Kam Sing, Tai Po

Frontline civil servants deserve a bigger pay rise

Hong Kong’s Executive Council has approved a 2.5 per cent pay increase for civil servants, despite many unions airing their dissatisfaction with the arrangement and lobbying for a larger raise. The outcome is not unexpected.

In making the decision, the Executive Council would have taken into account six factors. They are net pay trend indicators, the state of the economy, changes in the cost of living, the government’s fiscal position, staff pay claims and civil service morale.

According to the pay trend survey revealed in May, senior civil servants were recommended for a pay increase of 7.26 per cent. This was shocking to many people because such a hefty raise is not common in the private sector even in good times, not to mention that the economy is still recovering from the pandemic.

While the performance of senior civil servants might be a disappointment to many, frontline civil servants – especially those health and ambulance service workers – are highly appreciated and worthy of being rewarded. However, most of them will only receive raises of 2.5 per cent, and such a small pay increase is not fair to them.

At the end of the day, though, a small increase is still better than a pay freeze, as was the case for the past two years.

Jack Chung, Sham Shui Po