Hong Kong is testing public patience with even stricter Covid-19 rules

I, like most Hongkongers, have dutifully been vaccinated, lined up for testing, and followed social distancing rules, no matter how confusing
Compliance has been rewarded with ever stricter measures. How much longer can the government expect us to cooperate?

Peter Kammerer

Published: 6:45am, 22 Feb 2022

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As far as model citizens go in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, I believe I have done a first-rate job. With the announcement of each vaccine roll-out, I have promptly got a jab. When I was recently notified there were cases in the building I live in, I was among the first in line for a test the following morning. If I’m asked to scan the QR code on my Leave Home Safe app or show my vaccination record, I have no qualms.

As self-congratulatory as I am, though, I am not exceptional among the people I know; they all do as I do. In fact, I don’t know anyone who is unvaccinated or goes out of their way to avoid the rules. There are plenty of accounts of people being fined for violating regulations, but they are not in my circle of friends or contacts. Unsurprisingly, then, we wonder why we have not been rewarded by authorities for being so civic-minded.

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With the coronavirus swamping the city in a fifth wave of infections, driven by the Omicron variant, we don’t feel vulnerable to severe illness given our vaccination status. It is likely, given the high-transmissibility of the virus, that a number of us may have already had it, but our strengthened immunity means we have fought it off and not noticed.

Still, as rules requiring proof of vaccination to shop and eat out take effect, nothing has changed when it comes to quarantining and travel. Regardless of whether we have symptoms, a positive test result means in-person isolation from others for weeks.

With President Xi Jinping having ordered authorities to go all-out to stop the spread of the virus, even tougher restrictions are on the way. Mainland help has started arriving and testing has been stepped up; citywide screening has been foreshadowed. Rapid antigen test kits are being given to us and we will presumably be expected to test ourselves regularly and tell authorities of a positive result.

Honesty about testing positive leads to spending weeks away from loved ones, friends and work colleagues. Those we know or interact with have their lives disrupted or are inconvenienced. Even if we do not have symptoms, we will be treated as if we have a deadly disease.

That is despite Covid-19 mainly troubling those in poor health, with chronic illnesses, weak immune systems or the unvaccinated. The tougher authorities get, the greater the possibility of people not wanting to cooperate.

People scan the Leave Home Safe QR code while waiting to deliver parcels to friends and relatives at Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre on December 22, 2021. Photo: Sam Tsang

No one knows how Covid-19 will evolve. A number of health experts believe it will become endemic, which doesn’t mean giving up the fight, but learning to live with it. At a time when most governments elsewhere have decided on that strategy and are gradually removing restrictions, Hong Kong is moving in the opposite direction.

At what point will that policy change? Our vaccination rate for those who have had two jabs is already over 75 per cent, not counting children aged 3 to 11 who have only recently become eligible. Countries that have higher levels have found vaccination alone doesn’t stop the spread of Omicron. By the time tweaked vaccines are available, new variants may be rampaging.

3 scenarios of how the pandemic will end in Hong Kong

Diseases are brought under control through vaccination, natural infection and behaviour changes like mask-wearing and improved hygiene. Outbreaks are managed with testing, tracing and treatment of severe cases. Hong Kong has gone far beyond that, yet still acts as if that isn’t enough for life to return to normal.

So, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and others in the administration directing our anti-Covid-19 strategy: when am I, and all the others like me who have been faithfully following what you order – even when it’s confusing – going to be rewarded for being so loyal? What is that reward going to be? Two years is more than enough time for you to figure it out. Life is, after all, short.

Peter Kammerer is a senior writer at the Post

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