Letters | Covid-19 fifth wave has exposed Hong Kong’s deep flaws – from housing and health care to a lack of empathy

Readers question whether the city could have done more to prepare for its latest and worst Covid-19 outbreak, call for more help from the mainland, and highlight how delays by officials are keeping people in isolation for longer than required

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Patients with Covid-19 symptoms lie in beds at a temporary holding area outside Caritas Medical Centre in Cheung Sha Wan on February 18. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 11:30am, 23 Feb 2022

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The fifth wave of the pandemic has laid bare some harsh realities for Hong Kong society. Deep rifts between different groups, lack of proper infrastructure and inadequate social care – Omicron has unveiled just how vulnerable we really are.

For decades, people have lived in cramped flats in public housing estates, multiple generations living together in one tiny space. A social setting like this not only makes home isolation unfeasible, but also makes remote working – which is now the norm for most office workers – difficult, if not impossible.

A number of public housing estates have seen severe outbreaks, which can be safely attributed to building design and utility infrastructure. For the middle-income portion of the population, private housing estates are hardly any better.

Meanwhile, our public health care system quickly became overwhelmed as soon as daily case numbers rose above 1,000. Clusters of patients – particularly the elderly – waiting outside hospitals was something I never expected to see in a world-class city like Hong Kong. Obviously, the health care workers – no matter how selfless and valiant they’ve been – are stretched to their limits.

All this raises a serious question about what could have been done in the last couple of years to prepare the city for a crisis of this magnitude, given that we had the luxury of being largely Covid-free.