LettersCoronavirus pandemic: if Europe is handling the crisis so well, why do I feel safer in Hong Kong?

European countries were naively confident that the coronavirus was an Asian problem that wouldn’t get to their shores

When the virus came knocking, Europe was caught completely on the wrong foot

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A sign prompting action because of a coronavirus outbreak, and calling for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s special adviser Dominic Cummings to be sacked, hangs on a lamp post on Oxford Street in central London on March 16. Retail has become a bellwether of the coronavirus crisis as China begins to recover and Europe goes into free fall. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 5:00am, 21 Mar 2020Updated: 5:00am, 21 Mar 2020

Alan Ho in his letter (“Five lessons for Hong Kong from Europe’s coronavirus battle”, March 16) extols the superior handling of the coronavirus crisis by European countries.

I was in Hong Kong at the start of the outbreak, then went to Europe for almost a month and returned just before the virus started to spread there. I saw Europe’s naive confidence that the virus would not get to their shores (the talk around town was that it literally was an Asian or, more specifically, Chinese issue).

Just look at the recent statements from the British prime minister, who made a humble policy reversal only upon realising the severity and risk of the virus’ spread.

Despite the spread of the virus in China, no border control measures or body temperature checks were implemented in Europe, no measures were taken to avoid sizeable gatherings, no health or safety recommendations were released to the public.

Well, surprise, surprise, the virus came knocking and Europe was caught completely on the wrong foot.

On the other hand, Hong Kong, just over 900km from Wuhan, the supposed epicentre of this outbreak, implemented several precautionary measures and did not have to resort to the more radical ones applied in mainland China.

And the verdict is in – the number of infection cases per million people in Hong Kong is currently lower than in France, Germany and Britain, among the countries so highly praised by Mr Ho.