First, as a Hong Kong person, I would like to extend my gratitude to the central government and the Guangdong provincial authorities for giving the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region a helping hand during these trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic. I am ever grateful, and I can confidently say that many Hong Kong residents quite rightly feel the same.
Hong Kong’s average daily caseloads are currently between 6,000 and 8,000, but these figures are likely to exceed 10,000 a day soon. And according to data extrapolated from current caseloads, a University of Hong Kong study predicts that we may be seeing daily caseloads of 183,000 by next month.
Compared to the manpower and resources of Hong Kong alone, the surge in cases is well beyond the city’s capabilities and existing infrastructure. We lack enhanced levels of hardware and software to first contain and then beat the fifth wave of the outbreak, which certainly necessitates the Chinese mainland’s involvement and generosity.
Europe and the West have their own way of doing things, and while “living with the virus” may appear to work for them, it certainly has extracted a huge cost in terms of human lives and the newly known effects of “long COVID”
The day after President Xi Jinping’s instructions on Hong Kong’s fight against COVID-19 were made known, the first batch of mainland health experts and resources were swiftly dispatched to the HKSAR. No questions asked.
Now that we have what we need, where do we go from here? We still need the motherland’s help in fighting this virus, and to learn from the experience that it has earned and the example it has been setting for the last two years.
We now have enough masks, face shields, and other personal protective equipment for our hospitals and ordinary citizens; we also have the necessary materials for carrying out universal testing in makeshift hospitals. But we still need to open more quarantine and testing centers as well as hospital beds to cope with demand, as caseloads are very clearly on the rise.
Without the mainland’s help, in terms of shortage of supplies, we would be back to where we were at the start of 2020, when people were scrambling for face masks, and some had to resort to innovative do-it-yourself devices.
We also need more mainland medical personnel to cross the boundary, as our own doctors and nurses are overworked and are desperate for relief. Some of these medical personnel had to be withdrawn from the front line as they also succumbed to the virus. But even with the mainland’s reinforcements, we still don’t have the required numbers.
At present, we have the resources to carry out up to 300,000 tests per day, but this is still not enough.
We need to test a minimum of 1 million people and ideally 2 million people per day to quickly catch up with the virus.
Readers are well aware by now that for quite some time, I have been advocating universal testing and other mandatory stringent measures of internal transmission prevention. This means early detection, early isolation, and early treatment.
To cut the chains of transmission across the city, we need to scale-up our testing capabilities. As always, I stand by my firm belief that universal testing of all 7.5 million Hong Kong residents is the way forward.
But if we are to make universal testing into a reality, we desperately need the motherland’s help.
And when it comes to treating more severe cases of infection, we are sorely lacking in experience and medical expertise. This is another reason we need experienced doctors and other medical personnel from the mainland. Our own medical team would surely benefit, in terms of not only expertise, but also valuable practical experience.
This is not to say we need to imitate the mainland’s COVID-19 stratagem to a tee. I must stress we cannot and should not transplant the mainland’s methods; it is about observing what has proved successful and making it work for Hong Kong, making adaptions along the way whenever necessary.
We have been combating this virus for over two years, and we have endured four waves of mass infections reasonably well. But there is no exaggeration to say that Hong Kong after two years is still ill-prepared and therefore ill-equipped to battle this current wave of COVID-19.
As President Xi said in his statement, the central government is here to help, but the main responsibility in Hong Kong’s battle against COVID-19 rests squarely on the shoulders of the Hong Kong SAR government itself.
The onus is on the HKSAR government to unite and mobilize the city inside and outside government. Inside, to make sure all government organs work in unison to achieve the goal — beating the virus and winning this battle. It also means within the same government organ, the senior echelon and their subordinates pull in the same direction. This is the time when clear leadership and collective resolve are needed.
Before the fifth wave hit Hong Kong, we were perfectly aware of how highly transmissible the omicron variant was and that the symptoms may be less severe than its predecessors’. But instead of focusing on the higher infection rate, somehow the less-severe symptoms made us complacent. And the complacency is everywhere to be seen in the formulation of the strategy and in the lack of preparedness.
Case in point, the fifth wave began from the infamous loophole that allowed aircrew to bypass quarantine rules. Since aircrew were able to return to Hong Kong on what were technically considered to be “cargo flights” — which were passenger planes carrying cargo but no paid passengers — aircrew working in high-risk countries were able to return to Hong Kong and roam our streets, and sadly, some were, as we all feared, asymptomatic carriers. Has this loophole been completely closed?
In due course, we need the appropriate experts from the mainland to audit all our anti-COVID-19 policies, as there might be blind spots and certainly areas that require improvement. This includes closing loopholes and finding a sustainable way to maintain “dynamic zero infection” during the fifth wave and beyond.
If the central government has been able to do it, which they have, for the 1.4 billion people across a land mass of over 9.5 million square kilometers on the mainland, then Hong Kong can obviously certainly quell the infection chains among the 7.5 million people across a considerably modest land mass of 1,106 square kilometers.
Time and time again, we have heard our government officials, including our chief executive, stating publicly that the central government has not made any specific requests in regards to our COVID-19 strategy. But this is where we have failed, by not learning our shortcomings and not asking for help. After all, how can we know what to change if we don’t know where we are going wrong?
While our SAR government is still primarily held accountable for tackling Hong Kong’s pandemic management and protecting Hong Kong residents, we still need to ask for help from the mainland and put on a united front within Hong Kong. After all, we are a single country, even as we currently abide by “two different systems”.
We need to follow the mainland’s lead with regards to both the formulation and execution of the COVID-19 strategy and policy. We cannot adopt the “live with the virus” strategy like the West because we must put people’s lives and health first and foremost.
Europe and the West have their own way of doing things, and while “living with the virus” may appear to work for them, it certainly has extracted a huge cost in terms of human lives and the newly known effects of “long COVID”. Therefore, we need to make the best use of the assistance of our motherland and also find inspiration in the example it has set. Otherwise, we may have to batten down the hatches for an even more turbulent storm, paying a heavy price in terms of both economic losses and human suffering.
The author is president of the think tank Wisdom Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.