Letters | Fourth wave or not, Hong Kong must get tough on social distancing

Reading Time:2 minutes

Crowds wait for a cable car ride in Tung Chung, during the long weekend celebrating National Day and the day following the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, on October 2. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 7:25am, 14 Oct 2020Updated: 7:25am, 14 Oct 2020

I am writing in response to the news about the alarming signs of Covid-19 rebounding in Hong Kong over the past few days (“Two Hong Kong schools closed as student among 11 new Covid-19 cases”, October 12). There were about 18 new cases of Covid-19 last Thursday, including 14 local cases, taking the caseload to the highest level since the third wave of the coronavirus outbreak appeared to have abated late last month.

Not only were there four local cases yesterday out of eight positive tests in total, these included two with unknown sources. Two school campuses are now shut in Tuen Mun, after another in Tseung Kwan O had to be shut for disinfection last week when a student was infected. A vocational school also closed for two weeks over a reported case. All this barely two weeks after in-class lessons were resumed in the city.

The government – not to mention epidemiologists and virologists– has long been warning of the fourth wave of Covid-19 this winter, and it plans to compel high-risk groups to undergo coronavirus tests and also to set up temporary screening stations in hard-hit areas. However, a leading infectious diseases expert said that the forecast fourth wave has already arrived, though the government’s assessment is that we are still in the third.

In my opinion, the increasing number of Covid-19 infections is really due to the four-day holiday two weeks ago, as some people didn’t wear masks when they went hiking or played sport. The government should tighten social distancing measures as soon as possible in order to delay or even prevent the fourth wave of Covid-19, otherwise the situation will be even more serious than anything we have seen so far, as most experts have warned.

Mask rules are essential to dealing with this virus, no matter if people are in indoor places or outdoors, and the rules must cover exercise, or else there will be some people who think they don’t have to wear masks because they are running, even though they are so slow as to be really walking.

Besides, citizens also have the responsibility to be self-disciplined and aware of virus prevention measures, such as maintaining social distance and following the four-person limit on public gatherings – rules which have been repeatedly flouted by bar patrons and hotel guests.

I sincerely hope we can fend off the fourth wave but, for that to happen, we will need to be on our guard together.