Editorial | Greater focus required in Hong Kong virus battle to hit zero-infections target
- With relatively few Covid-19 cases coming to light in government ambush-style lockdowns, a more refined approach to such measures and testing would seem necessary
Hong Kong’s government is determined to get daily Covid-19 infection numbers down to zero for the Lunar New Year. Officials have shown stronger determination with snap lockdowns of specified areas and residential buildings after Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s virtual duty meeting with President Xi Jinping last week.
There have been ever-tighter testing regimes and threats of tough action against those who fail to comply. The new-found energy is what has long been needed to break the hold of the disease, but to be effective, it has to be properly focused.
Tough measures were necessary with infection numbers from the fourth wave of the epidemic remaining stubbornly high, although a lowering to 25 cases with four from unknown sources was reported on Tuesday. Officials maintain the ambush-style lockdowns for compulsory testing to locate affected people is the right approach, even though it causes inconvenience.
But attention has been on residential buildings, with the threshold being decreased on Monday to a single untraceable case or positive result from sewage sampling. So far only a relatively few infected people have been found among the thousands tested, raising doubts about effectiveness.
As welcome as it is for residents to know that where they live is virus-free, the question of how cases are being unknowingly acquired in the community is not being answered. The approach leaves people wondering if and when they will be locked down overnight or longer at home or even in their workplace, if it is in a residential block.