Editorial | Cooperation key in latest coronavirus battle
- Worrying rise in cases is proof enough of need for an efficient means of tracking the spread of Covid-19, and for people to willingly come forward to be tested
Turning the economy around and resuming cross-border travel requires, as Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said yesterday, attaining the Covid-19 target of “zero infections”.
But the tough measures imposed by the mainland cannot readily be implemented in Hong Kong, so the government has to adopt a different approach. That involves, as the chief executive acknowledged, “the support and cooperation of the general public”.
More than ever, with a fourth wave now sweeping the city, there has to be stringent observance and enforcement of social-distancing rules.
New measures taking effect today include the closing of bars, pubs, nightclubs and bathhouses, a reduction in the number of people at banquets to 40, and the banning of live music and dancing at clubs. But the restrictions fail to fully address the cause of the latest outbreak involving scores of cases centred on venues for dancing that do not require a licence to operate.
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Such premises cannot be easily categorised or identified, nor do they necessarily keep lists of visitors, so an order that patrons have to undergo a mandatory test is difficult to enforce.