Success of testing program crucial to normalization of life

Adding to the harm caused by the yearlong violent anti-extradition-bill campaign and the Sino-US trade row, the eightmonth-long COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on both Hong Kong’s economy and people’s livelihoods.

The economy plunged by 9 percent in the second quarter compared to a year ago, the fourth consecutive quarter of year-onyear contraction in GDP. The economy is in its worst shape in more than a decade.

Along with the economy, the livelihoods of many residents have been hard hit as social-distancing measures and fear of the virus’s threat to health and life have suffocated many economic activities, with service sectors, including catering, transportation and retailing, bearing the brunt.

Many Hong Kong residents are now in hot water amid a record unemployment rate under the cloud of the pandemic. Life is especially hard for low-income families. A recent survey revealed that the jobless and underemployment rate among Hong Kong’s low-income residents is about eight times higher than the overall unemployment rate, at 6.1 percent from May to July, near the highest in more than a decade.

The jobless rate would have shot up much higher — probably to an unprecedented level — had it not been for the government’s Employment Support Scheme, which has doled out rounds of financial subsidies to businesses, preventing them from laying off more staff or going bust altogether.

With their livelihoods ruined by the pandemic, many residents have been enduring unbearable financial stress, which has contributed to a reported rise in the number of cases of mental illness.

There is no way Hong Kong society can get rid of these woes until we get the economy back to normal, which is unlikely until the COVID-19 pandemic is put under control. In the absence of effective vaccines, cutting off the transmission chains of the novel coronavirus is the only way to achieve that.

The SAR government has pinned high hopes on the Universal Community Testing Programme; so have many Hong Kong residents as evidenced by their strong support for it. But for the plan to achieve the desired results, the participation of all residents is necessary.

The success of the testing program is crucial to the normalization of life, the recovery of the economy, and the removal of Hong Kong residents’ woes. Most importantly, it is a matter of life and death for the vulnerable population.

The political radicals who have left no stone unturned to undermine the testing campaign in their attempt to promote their political agenda need to be reminded that no lofty-sounding slogans can cover up the fact that they prioritize partisan interests over the well-being of society.