Letters | Hong Kong’s coronavirus mass testing results support full reopening of city

The HK$530 million scheme turned up just 32 infections and shows Covid-19 is not the existential threat to Hong Kong it was feared to be. Time to lift lockdown restrictions and stop ravaging the economy

Coronavirus Hong Kong

Letters

Published: 7:15am, 19 Sep, 2020

Why you can trust SCMP

Hong Kong has tested a fifth of our population and found 32 new infections. What now?

I simply do not understand how this helps us. Sure, we can extrapolate that we have around 160 infected people overall in Hong Kong. So what? Other than the fact that it seems remarkably few.

I presume one “benefit” is that 32 people were quarantined and with the reproduction rate of the virus in Hong Kong at less than 1, we have avoided 32 other people being infected. Given that the scheme cost HK$530 million (US$68 million), or HK$16.5 million per infected case that turned up, we could have shipped each person off to a villa in the Maldives for a fraction of the cost.

Let us have some sense of proportion. Last year, we lost over 10,000 fellow residents to Covid-19-like diseases such as pneumonia and lower respiratory infections. These are also avoidable through lockdowns, distancing, masking and the rest. But we do not tie ourselves in knots to do so for diseases that are 100 times deadlier.

03:07

Hong Kong’s Covid-19 mass testing ends with at least 42 carriers found among 1.78 million people

I await with interest the government telling us what it has achieved by mass testing.

I must say I do not understand why we have decimated our economy and savaged our society for a disease we now know is most assuredly not the existential threat we feared. End lockdowns now!

Peter Forsythe, Discovery Bay

‘Swim and go’ policy would enable reopening of beaches

With Hong Kong beginning to open various facilities, including swimming pools and other indoor sports venues, now is a great time to reopen our beaches. Not only are they spacious and outdoors, they also offer health benefits (both physical and psychological) which can greatly outweigh infection concerns.

A “swim and go” policy is an innovative and logical option to reduce restrictions on ocean access, for swimming or boating. People can use the beach for a short time – only to enter and exit the water – and participate in water activities.

It seems that one concern relates to the use of public showers, but there is no actual need for showers. Most of us who would like to be outdoors, to exercise and embrace our great environment, will not be too upset if there is no shower access.

It would be very easy to regulate and minimise social gatherings on the beach, and to limit “lingering” if that is a concern, but there is no reason that the entire coastline of Hong Kong should be restricted from use when the city is trying to improve everyone’s health, as seen from the opening of gyms, pools and many other social locations.

04:57

Hong Kong gyms reopen, but many owners say financial damage of Covid-19 may already be too severe

Hong Kong is, luckily, one of the safest places in the world, and one of the most beautiful, and it seems the right time to open our coastline once again.

Ryan Cheung, Ma On Shan

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