Hong Kong’s Covid Strategy Has Failed. Miserably
It’s impossible to keep the virus outside the territory’s borders. Time for authorities to admit the folly of this premise and develop a real plan for moving on.
Even playgrounds are off limits.
Photographer: Paul Yeung/BloombergHong Kong’s veneer of normalcy has been shattered — and it’s exposed just how misguided and unrealistic the territory’s Covid-19 containment strategy has become two years into the pandemic.
After months of no local Covid infections, Hong Kong reported a string of positive cases over the past week. The territory’s so-called fifth wave was set off by an aircrew employee who didn’t fully comply with his medical surveillance rules — a special concession for airlines. He went to a restaurant for lunch and it quickly spread from there. Several senior government officials, including the territory’s police chief, immigration head and financial services secretary, were ordered into quarantine after attending a birthday party that flouted warnings to avoid large gatherings.