The Difficulties in Implementing a Coronavirus Response in Hong Kong

In 1918, the influenza pandemic (colloquially known as Spanish Flu) broke out, causing one of the worst pandemic outbreaks in human history. One hundred years later, news of COVID-19 (colloquially known as Wuhan Virus) is spreading across all news outlets, with fears of it being another devastating outbreak. In such dire situations, one must wonder: What is our Government doing in response to such a crisis, especially one whose origin is so close to where we live? Petitions, protests and even strikes from medical professionals; why is there still increasing public discontent towards the Government?

Quarantines are designed to prevent disease transmission by restricting the movements of individuals who have been, or might have been, exposed to a contagious pathogen until they’re out of the window of developing disease[1]. Yet, Hong Kong is a troublesome location to maintain an outbreak. One obvious hurdle would be the unique geographical position of Hong Kong. Due to its natural landscape, most of Hong Kong’s land consists of countrysides and hills, making for a remarkably tricky location in the construction or allocation of quarantine centres. Besides, being one of the most densely populated cities in the world, free space for residential use, let alone a quarantine centre, is hard to come by, and would occasionally have to be located near residential areas. With average property prices soaring up to 9.6 million dollars[2], land for creating quarantine centres is also expensive. Not to mention, with an average of 6659 people per square kilometres[3] and dense towns and city centres, the high population density also poses an excellent opportunity for the virus with its highly contagious characteristics, which can quickly spread within the society and increase the infected and death toll. This is added to the fact that Hong Kong remains to be one of the most connected city-states in the world, bringing enormous amounts of people and cargo from all around the world, creating even more opportunities for viral infection and outbreaks. As such, one could see the colossal challenges Carrie and her Government have to face in handling such an epidemic in Hong Kong. So why is there still public discontent? Shouldn’t the people be grateful for their Government in guiding Hong Kong during such dark times?

While isolation and quarantine of suspected or infected patients is the ideal solution in stopping the virus from spreading, it should be noted that land and personnel in Hong Kong is minimal. The acquiring and determining of a suitable location for a quarantine centre is difficult, to say the least, and while relying on remote camps such as the Pak Tam Chung resort may be feasible, it is only temporary as land, as mentioned above, is limited. Eventually, locations closer to residential areas would be determined, leading to extreme resistance and public disapproval and hindering of the response. On the other hand, the maintenance of quarantine sites requires extensive amounts of personnel, of which human resources and materials are lacking substantially. This is clearly seen in the recent large-scale medical strike towards the Government, where medical staff and professionals protested against not only incomplete border closings but also insufficient materials and resources for the medical field to do their job safely.

One must come to realise that a lot of discontent towards the Government have originated from the lack of proper communication between the people and the regime. Ever since June, Carrie’s bureaucracy has come under heavy fire for its inability to communicate appropriately and respond to the people’s opinions and demands, often dismissing them as “juvenile” or “extreme”[4]. Besides, the inadequate and ineffective distribution of outbreak-relief materials such as masks and hand sanitizers for medical professionals and people in need would eventually lead to more and more questioning in the Government’s competency in managing a crisis.

Not all responsibilities should be held accountable for Carrie Lam. After all, the Hong Kong Government is under strong influence from the Central Government in Beijing, which it relies on in policymaking and in this case, its response to the virus. Thus, it could be seen quite clearly that the demand for a complete shutdown of the mainland-Hong Kong border would not be so easily fulfilled, despite every different justification given by the Government in press conferences (causing other countries to raise their travel restrictions, preventing segregation and discrimination)[5]. Similarly, Hong Kong has a bipartisan problem as well given the increasingly polarised society. Whatever your view of the current government, some of its actions have saved lives. The imposition of mandatory quarantines/isolations from Mainland Chinese travellers and foreign visitors from specific countries undoubtedly reduced the number of visitors who entered the region and infected themselves from the virus. The updated warning travel alerts also provided some benefit — but only if we understand that this delays disease spread and does not prevent it, and is justified only if we use the time it buys to follow the principle steps to counter an epidemic: disseminate key information, assess the economic and health (or political) benefits and risk and communicate risk[6]. Although the government has frequently been targeted for its delayed response, some of which can be redirected to the Legislative Councillors who decided to filibuster bills, including the latest financial budget that would hopefully alleviate the burden brought to the hard-hit industries over arguments that the police would get a significant increase in resources, and those who would specifically introduce bills which would help with their upcoming Legislative Council elections: at one point a memorandum for the Central Government prepared by Tamar indicated that the outbreak could help politically for the pro-establishment parties[7], once again politicising an epidemic and causing severe backlash.

Yet it is because of such “interferences” in local politics that causes even more public discontent, which would only lead to less and less cooperation and effectiveness in formulating a response towards the outbreak. This is clearly demonstrated in the Government’s attempts at setting up quarantine centres that are close to residential areas, resulting in protests and even arson committed on one of the sites.[8] Thus, one crucial change that is to be enacted is a proper medium for communication between the Government and the people. Without public consultation in such vital matters, policies and remedies would only be delayed and made ineffective due to resistance from the public. Another critical change is proper and effective allocation of relief materials to the citizens. With rumors of government-issued “CSI” masks being sold seemingly without the department’s knowing [9], it is easy to understand the dissatisfaction towards the handling of the situation, in the midst of shortages in all manners of materials and essentials. With growing fears of the virus and the maintaining of public security, it is crucial that the Government not only employ changes in its handling of the crisis as soon as possible before the situation eventually deteriorates.

[1] “Ask an Expert: An Epidemiologist Answers Our Questions About the Coronavirus, Quarantines, and Face Masks” Healthline, https://www.healthline.com/health-news/ask-an-expert-will-quarantines-make-the-coronavirus-worse#1

[2] Ben Kwok, “HK remains world’s most expensive housing market, by wide margin” Ejinsight on the pulse, http://www.ejinsight.com/20190412-hk-remains-worlds-most-expensive-housing-market-by-wide-margin/

[3] “Hong Kong Population 2020” World Population Review, https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/hong-kong-population/

[4][5] Tony Cheung, Sum Lok-kei, Chris Lau and Chan Ho-him “Coronavirus: Hong Kong faces escalated medical strike despite government move to expand border closures” South China Morning Post, https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3048738/coronavirus-hong-kong-leader-carrie-lam-declares

[6] Tom Freiden, “7 potentially deadly errors the US is making in its coronavirus response” Vox, https://www.vox.com/2020/3/16/21181025/coronavirus-covid-19-us-testing-pandemic

[7] Kimmy Chung and Ng Kang-chung, “Coronavirus: Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam does not deny telling Beijing outbreak could help politically”, South China Morning Post, https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3064745/coronavirus-hong-kong-leader-carrie-lam-does-not-deny

[8] Danny Lee, “China coronavirus: Hong Kong police, protesters clash in Fanling as anger erupts over proposal to use housing block as quarantine site” South China Morning Post, https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3047719/wuhan-coronavirus-hong-kong-police-protesters

[9] Lillian Cheng, “Hong Kong’s public investigating authorities under pressure to probe unauthorised use of masks meant for civil servants” South China Morning Post, https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3049900/hong-kongs-public-investigating-authorities-under