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Letters | Will there really be a sixth wave, or is it a false alarm like the red rainstorm warning?
- Readers discuss the likelihood of another serious coronavirus outbreak, the need to protect sex workers in Hong Kong, the UK’s plan to crack down on protests, and a bill that would change the way child custody cases are handled
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Hongkongers are some of the most cautious people on earth. Just look at how many people get out their umbrellas when it is only drizzling, and when it is really raining, they will open them just to walk the two steps from the bus stop to the bus.
When the Hong Kong Observatory issued a red rainstorm warning on May 13, it meant that all school classes were suspended, even though the weather ended up being quite nice and calm that Friday. Meanwhile, on Thursday, when no warning was issued, the weather was really bad, with heavy winds and lots of rain.
It’s no wonder, then, that local experts like Gabriel Leung now warn of a sixth wave of Covid-19. But isn’t is actually a fact that most people in Hong Kong are either fully vaccinated or have already contracted Covid, and that many people who test positive for Omicron experience no symptoms?
Even if Hong Kong’s official number of Covid-19 cases is 1.2 million, I would assume that the non-reported numbers are more than double that figure. People with mild or no symptoms might not want to report positive tests because of the city’s tough quarantine and isolation measures, which have also resulted in very few foreigners wanting to travel to Hong Kong.
I agree with epidemiologist Yuen Kwok-yung’s recent suggestion that the government should focus on the number of deaths or severe cases of Covid-19 rather than the total number of daily cases, of which many are asymptomatic. Then we would know how great a threat Covid-19 really poses, and could begin to coexist with the virus. Perhaps these figures could also be compared with those related to normal influenza?
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