LettersWith Hong Kong at risk of a serious coronavirus community outbreak, Carrie Lam’s slogan should be ‘we disconnect’

Every day, we see people standing in long queues to try and get hold of face masks, hand sanitisers and daily essentials thought to be in short supply. The talk of the town has been the stupidity of people scrambling for this stuff.

Yet the core problem is the presence of hidden coronavirus carriers in our community. We are seeing the increasing likelihood of a serious community outbreak, with the identification of cases in which those infected had not been to mainland China recently.

On the mainland, a melancholy air pervades cities with large numbers of Covid-19 cases – people are isolated and avoid touching others; no more mahjong games or hotpot. Hotpot fears are also rife in Hong Kong, following news that several members of a family became infected after sharing a hotpot at a restaurant.

The quarantining of people, buildings and even entire cities will continue until the last asymptomatic patient is identified, when we can truly call an end to the battle against Covid-19.

In Hong Kong, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s unwillingness to shut down all border crossings with the mainland has become the focus of heated debate. When basic protection such as face masks and antiseptics are out of reach, we are left with one option: grounding ourselves at home to minimise the chances of infection.