HK has outperformed many in virus control
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government’s efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic were not bad at all compared with many foreign countries, Executive Councilor Tommy Cheung Yu-yan said.
In the current difficult situation, the government needs to strike a balance between fighting the virus while not affecting the economy, employment and people’s way of life, given that Hong Kong is a business city, Cheung said.
“I agree the government needs to strike a balance in making decisions, but for this reason it is always criticized”, because it can’t please everybody, he told China Daily in an exclusive interview.
“For example, the four public health expert consultants called for a lockdown from the medical point of view because this is the least risky thing to do. I don’t blame them. Some restaurant owners said they did not object closing their outlets for 14 days as the lesser evil. But I always question how much risk would be reduced if restaurants are closed. I would do it if the risk is reduced by 10 percent, but not reduced by merely 1 percent.”
He referred to the United Kingdom and the United States, which were both slow to react to the coronavirus at the beginning before announcing their respective lockdowns as the situation fast worsened.
Many people say Macao is doing very well. “Hong Kong in fact does better than many other cities,” he said. “Macao has fewer confirmed cases but it has a smaller population, fewer tourists and also fewer students studying overseas returning home. I don’t think the Hong Kong SAR government has omitted doing anything and nor is it being too fast or too late in launching new measures.”
Catering industry
Cheung has another capacity as a legislative councilor representing the catering sector, which is one of the trades hardest hit by COVID-19.
The government had planned to close the restaurants, but the industry reacted promptly by volunteering a series of control measures to increase social distancing on March 27 after a meeting with Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
“We offer to do more than the government asks,” Cheung said. “As to the new measures, restaurants agreed to refuse customers on quarantine orders and wearing surveillance wristbands and to stop live band performances. The owners are willing to close half of the seats at night even though they know customers would stay longer for dinner. Several thousand eating establishments have signed the agreement to launch the new measures” to show their social responsibility.
Such measures have been in force for more than a week, and there are no reports of infections in restaurants, he said. Barring large-scale outbreaks, he feels there is no need to go to extremes and ban dining-in services in restaurants, as is being done in many foreign countries.