As the fifth wave wanes, safe reopening with Macau could be next step towards normality

Now that the Covid-19 pandemic appears to be easing with no serious rebound in infection numbers, there is some hope of getting back to days with just double-digit numbers of cases in the not-too-distant future.

Our city has long closed itself off from the rest of the world and severely restricted the flow of travellers, triggering the loss of many business opportunities. Foreign firms have been driven to consider moving workers and operations to other cities such as Singapore, which would hurt our competitiveness.

With the pandemic now appearing to be slowing down, people are naturally thinking about how to put Hong Kong’s faltering economy back on track as quickly as possible.

Our government being overly concerned about the pandemic is even worse than those taking it lightly. There have been more than 1 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Hong Kong. The University of Hong Kong’s faculty of medicine estimated last month that 3.6 million residents had been infected with the virus. More than 90 per cent of the city’s population aged 12 and above has received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, with 87 per cent receiving a second dose.

What is the worry about lifting restrictions? We must not wait until we all develop more psychological problems than we already have.

Neighbouring countries are reopening their borders, but we are still locking ourselves up along with the mainland. This is because of the need to get in line with the implementation of the “dynamic zero-infection” policy. For this reason, we should not hold the slightest hope of reopening the border with the mainland any time soon.

Why don’t we take a look at Macau, though? Macau surely needs to start bringing in tourists to get its economy thriving again. If Hong Kong is doing a good job of getting our inbound tourists tested with great care, I do not see much chance of us exporting infections to Macau.

After all the high anxiety and stress we have been through – all the trauma and pain imposed by the onslaught of Covid-19 – many people would like to play a hand of poker in the casino or receive a massage to help put body and soul back in shape.

Randy Lee, Ma On Shan