SARS Lessons Inoculate Hong Kong Against Epidemic
The city has fewer coronavirus cases than Singapore, South Korea, Italy or the U.S. Attribute that to memories of the 2003 outbreak.
Trauma flashback: health workers outside Amoy Gardens in 2003.
Photographer: Christian Keenan/Getty Images
Hong Kong has fewer coronavirus cases than the U.S., Singapore or Italy. That might seem surprising for a city that sits on the doorstep of mainland China and has intertwining business, tourism and personal connections with the source of the epidemic. The reason can be summed up in one word: SARS.
The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003 sowed extreme caution in Hong Kong, a former British colony that had returned to Chinese sovereignty six years earlier. The city, which maintained its own customs and passport controls after the handover, was home to an eventual 299 of the 744 SARS fatalities. That was the highest number worldwide, though the disease originated in southern China. The wariness instilled by that experience has persisted.