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Opinion | No room for complacency as Hong Kong fights to end the coronavirus surge and avoid a ‘third wave’
- The city was not alone in being hit by a ‘second wave’ of infections last month as Hongkongers returned sick from abroad and locally transmitted cases also shot up
- Financial aid and public health measures are in place to try to stop the disease’s spread. Now, everyone needs to stay vigilant
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One day in the future, when the coronavirus pandemic is over, we will look back at how we dealt with this crisis. Perhaps in Hong Kong, we will particularly remember the “second wave” of infections that started around the middle of March.
Up to that time, it looked like we had the disease under control. Then the number of confirmed or probable cases shot up – from around 150 on March 15 to 961 by April 9. If you look at a chart, it clearly shows a major surge in imported cases during March, plus a big increase in local, “possibly local” and especially “close contact of local” cases.
The huge rise in imported cases was due to the return of Hong Kong residents – such as students – from overseas. At the same time, it looks like many of us were perhaps too complacent. The tracking system is not perfect, but the numbers suggest that most of the new local cases spread from existing cases already here.
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Incidentally, despite what you may have heard, there is no “third wave” coming to Hong Kong now that Wuhan’s lockdown has ended. Mainland authorities remain very cautious, and Hong Kong is still refusing entry to all non-residents from anywhere in the world.
Hong Kong was not alone in seeing this second wave of cases. Mainland China, Singapore, Japan and South Korea have all reported broadly similar patterns.
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