With the latest measure banning all passenger flights from Britain effective since Thursday, Hong Kong is once again on high alert against the highly contagious Delta variant.
Several Delta variant cases have been reported in Hong Kong. The first was a 27-year-old airport employee who works part-time at Uptown Plaza in Tai Po. The second case was traced to another Uptown Plaza employee. Both individuals lived in the same residential block in Tai Po.
According to epidemiologist Professor Gabriel Leung Cheuk-wai, dean of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, one infected person can spread the variant to eight people. Reports from Guangdong province health authorities have found that without the use of face masks, the variant can be transmitted from person to person within eight seconds.
Public Health England in the United Kingdom has warned that the Delta variant is 60 percent more transmissible than the Alpha variant, which led to the first UK lockdown last spring.
Due to the virulent nature of this variant, over 100,000 cases were confirmed in the UK between June 21 and 27. The British government even had to delay its so-called Freedom Day to July 19. The total lifting of lockdown restrictions was originally scheduled for June 21.
Even with nearly half of the UK population having received full vaccinations, and the government having prepared for a third wave of infections, the vaccination rate has proved inadequate to achieve herd immunity.
The situation in Israel is another example that calls into question the efficacy of vaccinations on the community level. Even in one of the leading countries for nationwide vaccination, nearly half of the newly confirmed carriers of the Delta variant were vaccinated adults. Over 80 percent of Israeli residents aged 16 and above have received the full doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Thankfully, up to now, Hong Kong hasn’t been as badly affected by the Delta variant. And as I have warned time and time again, the vaccine alone is not a guarantee against an ever-mutating virus. Personal hygiene, mask-wearing, and continued vigilance must also be part of the regime.
And with the summer holidays fast approaching, many Hong Kong people studying overseas in countries such as the UK and the United States will be flying home away from the outbreaks as soon as they can. Knowing this, we must act swiftly to curb the importation of infections from abroad. The shortage of hotel rooms for quarantine is also a matter of concern for the special administrative region government, and a solution has yet to be found.
The need to remain cautious and receive our vaccinations is not simply a matter of protecting ourselves and others around us, but also ensuring the city’s continued survival. The pandemic has cost our economy over HK$600 billion ($77.2 billion), according to George Leung Siu-kay, chief executive of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
As private businesses offer all kinds of lucrative incentives to encourage vaccination, we need to consider the short- and long-term benefits of reopening the border with the Chinese mainland.
According to China’s top epidemiologist, Zhong Nanshan, a gradually reopened Hong Kong-mainland border could come as soon as this month. Of course, this will be down to safe and sensible coordination on the part of both the SAR government and the central government.
The Return2hk program — which allows Hong Kong residents returning from the mainland or Macao to be exempted from the 14-day quarantine requirement — is a good start, but this is still not enough to stimulate our stagnant economy. It is hoped that the Come2hk program, which allows mainland residents a similar exemption, will also be launched before long. Given the strong economic, family and social ties between the two sides, it is imperative that we resume the ties and encourage mainland visitors to come to Hong Kong and inject life back into our city and its economy.
We need travel in both directions between the two sides if we want our city to get back on its feet. We could first allow users of the Come2hk program to visit solely for business and trade purposes, followed by family visits and tourism from across the border.
We all know how well the mainland has managed the pandemic, so it is a logical course of action to allow mainland residents to visit Hong Kong without having to endure a lengthy quarantine period. Since we are allowing Hong Kong residents to come back from the mainland without quarantine, it is entirely reasonable and viable to extend the same to mainland residents.
A virus is an indiscriminate being. If a traveler is coming into Hong Kong from a safe place, it is entirely logical to allow them quarantine-free access to Hong Kong, regardless of their nationality (subject to a negative COVID-19 test result, of course).
And if by any chance the Come2hk program leads to a resurgence in cases, our government can simply suspend the program until further notice. If swift and decisive action is taken when required, these two programs can be carried out without fear.
Therefore, it is absolutely safe, scientifically and medically, to start Come2hk. It is absolutely necessary economically to start Come2hk. And with Hong Kong being an inalienable part of China, it is totally correct politically to start Come2hk. I urge the SAR government to act now.
The author is president of Wisdom Hong Kong, a think tank.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.