Letters | Why Carrie Lam struggles to define what ‘dynamic zero Covid’ means

Readers discuss confusion on ‘dynamic zero Covid’, the need for testing centres, frustration over perceived half measures, and monitoring sex services

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People queue for Covid-19 testing at Edinburgh Place in Central on February 8. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 11:30am, 10 Feb 2022Updated: 2:12pm, 10 Feb 2022

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There seems to be some confusion about what “dynamic zero Covid” means. When Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was asked, she said she did not come up with the term and could not give a definitive explanation.

Many commentators interpret “dynamic zero Covid” as “pursuing zero Covid no matter what”, by sparing no effort to stop the spread through contact tracing and lockdowns. Another logical interpretation of the phrase is “adapting the zero-Covid strategy according to the situation”, taking into account what you can afford to do financially, what is allowed by law and is wise to do while balancing the interests of society as a whole as the virus mutates.

There are two broad options for adapting Covid-19 strategies. The first involves optimising defences against Covid-19 and taking into consideration the costs, benefits and constraints, such as hospital capacity. This is very hard as you have to put a relative price on many things, such as human life and the economy.

This is the approach adopted to some extent by countries such as the United Kingdom and Denmark. They have selectively moved away from testing, contact tracing, social distancing and border controls if the benefits are deemed to be greater than the social costs and social agreement can be gained.

The second option can be thought of as a special case of the first option. It involves pursuing “zero Covid” as much as you can reasonably afford, considering the costs of contact tracing, social distancing and border controls. Under this option, human life is treated as priceless. This is the approach adopted by most countries, including mainland China.