Letters | Hong Kong government, not Cathay Pacific, responsible for city’s Covid-19 fight
- Readers discuss Hong Kong’s efforts to prevent a fifth wave, Carrie Lam’s treatment of Cathay Pacific, the need for more vaccination centres, and why the health code should be integrated with the iAM Smart app
The government seems to have put too much faith in Cathay Pacific to ensure its aircrew follow quarantine rules. Those rules required crew to isolate at home for three days. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor summoned Cathay’s chairman and CEO and expressed the government’s dissatisfaction with the staff’s breaches of the isolation rule.
I can imagine Lam’s despair at this failure of the virus prevention strategy at a time when reopening of the border with the mainland appeared imminent. However, she should realise that while Cathay Pacific is required to follow the rules, the government is responsible for the well-being of 7 million Hong Kong residents.
Hong Kong’s laissez-faire style of governance allowed it to achieve the status of “Asia’s World City” in the past two decades, but the government cannot stand on the sidelines when infection control is the need of the hour.
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Hong Kong businesses cry foul over abrupt return to anti-Covid-19 social-distancing rules
Finally, I would like to praise Hong Kong residents for doing their duty by complying with compulsory testing and quarantine orders, even during the end-of-year holidays, including those who do not support the current government.