Letters | Three reasons Hong Kong must drop all Covid-19 restrictions

Readers discuss the need for Hong Kong to move on from Covid-19, how the government can acknowledge the financial and emotional cost of quarantine restrictions, and the overreaction to the threat posed by the coronavirus

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A woman checks departing flight at Hong Kong airport on August 8. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Published: 11:30am, 10 Aug 2022

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Hong Kong must remove all Covid-19 restrictions immediately. No quarantine, no school disruptions, no testing, no apps, no mandatory masks – all restrictions must be removed. There are three main reasons for this.

First, Hong Kong is an international financial centre and regional hub for many businesses. Without the ability to freely travel, it is impossible to sustainably work in Hong Kong for people engaged in such businesses.

Second, Hong Kong’s children cannot have any more disruptions to their education. A whole generation of children are falling behind previous generations and children from other countries, which no longer have restrictions.

Third, there is no medical reason to retain the restrictions. Like Europe and the US, Hong Kong has a high vaccination rate and a fairly high rate of previous infection. For those who are fully vaccinated (three doses and above), the Covid-19 death rate is not dissimilar to that for traditional flu.

My family and I spent the last two months travelling freely in Europe without any restrictions. Covid-19 is everywhere and will not disappear. My family caught the virus and many people we know caught it. The symptoms were no worse than traditional cold or flu. Covid-19 is highly contagious and will evolve and be with us for decades at the very least.