Erratic virus restrictions plague Hong Kong

HONG KONG — As Hong Kong battles a new wave of coronavirus infections with yet another round of social restrictions, a sense of fatigue with the confusing and inconsistent nature of the city’s pandemic response is setting in amongbusiness owners and residents.

Although the Asian financial center has thus far been relatively unscathed— total COVID-19 cases amounting to just 81 cases per 100,000 people out of a densely packed 7 million population — the city has encountered more waves than most other places and is entering its fourth round of stop-start restrictions.

“Hong Kong has undoubtedly been lucky with the pandemic so far. What has been missing is a clear, public road map as to how and when restrictions will be implemented and when the rules will be relaxed,” said Nicholas Thomas, associate professor in health security at the City University ofHongKong.

The coronavirus has been an unpredictable and volatile foe, warranting nimble and quick-changing reaction fromgovernments.

But as the pandemic approaches its first anniversary, Hong Kong’s residents and business owners are increasingly looking to the structured response systems in place in regional neighbors like New Zealand, South Korea and Singapore in envy.

The former British colony’s comparatively erratic response is deepening the crisis in aneconomy already on its knees from months of restive street protests followed by the pandemic.

The sharp rise in new local cases late lastmonth is linked to social dancing venues, yet officials have announced a closure of bars, karaoke rooms and massage parlors.

Like in previous rounds,

Commuters in masks crowd an underground metro station amid the coronavirus pandemic last week in Hong Kong.

the restrictions are imposed for a week or two at a time, leaving business owners ina state of suspended animation and unable to plan.

“At the moment, I’m waiting for Friday afternoonto see if they’re closing more classrooms,” said Stephanie Holding, a mother of three sons who runs her own business from home.

She would rather see a system that lets people “know what’s affected and when,” she said.

HongKong says it takes a flexible “suppress and lift” approach to virus restrictions based on the advice of medical advisers.

But other high-risk businesses like gyms and restaurants don’t know when they’ll be asked to close, and only some are required to enforce a little-used health code app before allowing patrons in.

To add to the confusion, schooling and child care services for younger kids were also shut down again last month— but because of an outbreak of the common cold and notCOVID-19.

In other places with different phases or alert levels that determine what restrictions are activated at what stage of infection, “we know we’ve reached this level and this is what will take place next,” said Allan Zeman, an economic adviser to Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and ChairmanofLanKwaiFong Group, a major landlord in the city’s bar district. “You have a sense of ‘this is what we need to do to get back to zero,’ rather than just adhoc decision making week by week.”

The government defends its approach by saying that the public alert level systems employed elsewhere

don’twork inHongKong.

LamChing Choi, adoctor and a member of the chief executive’s advisory ExecutiveCouncil, said thathedid not believe that a “very structured approach” was right for what he touts as “the most free economy in theworld.”

Instead, Lam likened the Hong Kong approach to “precision medicine,” and said that the focus was on maintaining normality as far as possible rather than turning to blanket lockdowns.

“Sowhen youwalk in our city, you don’t really feel like COVID-19 is going on, apart from wearing masks,” he said.

The risk is that this “precision” is seen as arbitrary by businesses: with no current virus clusters directly linked to the bar industry, the latest ruling for bars to shut down has “zero scien

tific basis,” said David McEwan, the owner of Bobby’s Rabble, a bar in the Central district.

Although bars and nightclubs are generally regarded as high-risk locations in every country, businesses say they lack understanding over the level at which they’ll be singled out and what circumstances would allowthem to re-open.

“This is one of the busiest times of the year and we have no idea if it’s aweek or will there be a extension every week like last time,” said Ravi Beryar, managing director of Liquid Management Ltd, which operates two venues in Hong Kong’s main bar districts.

Beryar and others say they would like a more methodical and transparent approach akin to that of other countries in the Asia Pacific region who have been among the most successful in the world in containing the spread of COVID-19.

New Zealand introduced a four-tier alert system near the beginning of the pandemic, and has been widely lauded for its clarity in communicating the system to its citizens. Singapore in May announced a threephase road map for the gradual resumption of normal life.

South Korea, which has been reporting its highest number of new cases in eight months, has also been continuously enforcing and relaxing social restrictions in response to case numbers.

However, its strategy is dictated by a five-step system whereby certain measures are triggered when cases reach a certain threshold.

New Zealand tops Bloomberg’s COVID ResilienceRanking, whichassess countries’ success in controlling the coronavirus with minimal disruptions to everyday life. South Korea ranks fourth, while Singapore comes in at 11th, one spot ahead ofHongKong.

“While the real world is inevitably more messy than a lab, having a clear structure that is above politics help to foster trust in the response strategies,” said CUHK’s Thomas.

Another group frustrated with Hong Kong’s response is parents, who have endured up to three rounds of school closures this year.

The latest, the shutting down of only nurseries and kindergartens — followed by primary one to three — was triggered by an outbreak of upper respiratory tract infections, for example, andnot the coronavirus.

“In other countries, they are keeping schools open at all costs,” said Rosheen Rodwell, a mother of three childrenwho said that communications from the government has been lacking in terms of whether they are prioritizing schools. “People are prepared to get on board and make sacrifices if they understand why.”