Letters | Enough is enough: set date to reopen Hong Kong and make vaccine holdouts see the light

If Hongkongers worry fully vaccinated travellers might still carry the virus, they should use this as another reason to show responsibility and get vaccinated

City cannot keep the doors closed indefinitely because some people do not want to do their part to protect the community by getting vaccinated

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Long queue for Covid-19 vaccinations seen at the Hong Kong Central Library in Causeway Bay on July 19. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 6:42am, 23 Jul 2021Updated: 6:42am, 23 Jul 2021

In recent weeks it feels like the government has become paralysed as far as evolving policies to reflect the actual pandemic situation in the city. Anyone monitoring the new case reports can see the truth – the disease has basically been eradicated in the city.

We are going weeks without new locally transmitted cases. Any new cases are imported and quickly isolated, or they are rare leaks in the firewall causing an infection or two that are also typically associated with incoming travellers and quickly snuffed out. Yet, we all continue to sweat away behind our masks under the oppressive summer sun.

The government actually reacted to successful containment results and loosened measures after the first and second waves. Now, for weeks, it seems the government is holding the populace hostage with the demand we first need to reach herd immunity on vaccinations before it relaxes measures, even if these measures are completely unnecessary in a largely Covid-free city.

I have written in before about how the appeal of lucky draws is limited, how easier international travel would be a better incentive to encourage more people to get vaccinated and how anti-vaxxers are misjudging long-term risks.

I think now the government needs to be more bold and assertive. It is time to announce a date that Hong Kong will reopen to fully vaccinated international visitors who can enter without quarantine provided they were tested before flying and provide proof of vaccination.

Hongkongers have had more than enough time to get vaccinated. If they worry fully vaccinated travellers might still carry the virus and risk a new wave of local infections, they should use this reopening date as yet another reason to take responsibility for themselves and get vaccinated before visitors start arriving.

If they do not and get infected down the road, they will have no one to blame but themselves. We cannot keep the doors closed indefinitely because some people do not want to do their part to protect the community by getting vaccinated.