LettersReliving Hong Kong’s pandemic moments, as all Covid rules are dropped

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As we celebrate the removal of the last Covid-19 restriction, it’s timely to recall some of the moments over the past three years that tested our collective sanity and ensured Hongkongers would emerge as perhaps the most resilient people on earth.

There were the two-person dining restrictions which, at their most extreme, resulted in a couple with a young baby sleeping in the stroller being told to separate. The early school break in March 2022 to make way for Compulsory Universal Testing, which never actually happened. The penalisation of airlines and the chaos caused to innocent passengers with quarantine hotel bookings just because a previous flight might have carried a few too many people with Covid.

The great hamster cull of 2022; the closure of outdoor barbecue pits for more than two years; the building of temporary hospitals and quarantine facilities, some of which were never activated.

The strict rules of sporting events, which governed even the eating of bananas during trail races. The closure of beaches, which seemed triggered by the appearance of photos on social media in the mainland suggesting Hongkongers dared to have fun. The priority given to indoor venues like shopping centres, which stayed open when many outdoor venues, from playgrounds to pools, were closed.

And Penny’s Bay, a name that could trigger us for generations to come.