Opinion | Coronavirus vaccine: let’s finish the job of controlling the pandemic and reopening

Name: Indians plead for help on Twitter as country grapples with worsening Covid-19 crisis
Uploaded: 2021-05-02T05:30:14.000Z
Duration: 2 min 30 s
Description: Indians plead for help on Twitter as country grapples with worsening Covid-19 crisis

It is important to recognise that all the good work Hong Kong has done up to now in social distancing, working from home and so on is not the end of the story

For our economy to recover, we have to reach herd immunity

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People stand in line outside a community vaccination centre in Hong Kong on April 5. Photo: Bloomberg

Mike Rowse

Published: 1:30pm, 2 May 2021Updated: 6:00pm, 2 May 2021

All of us in Hong Kong have been shocked and appalled these last two weeks by the terrible scenes from India of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over 350,000 new cases per day, hospitals with two patients per bed, not to mention those left outside to die, relatives fighting to bring oxygen tanks to loved ones gasping for air: these are surely scenes from hell. The contrast with our own calm and orderly lives couldn’t be more stark.

But before we congratulate ourselves on our good fortune, we need to bear in mind an important statistic: our vaccination rate is still abysmally low, 12 per cent for one dose, and around 6 per cent for two. It is not much better than India’s.

The last thing we want is to tempt fate. We need to take urgent action to boost uptake.

It is important to recognise that all the good work we have done up to now in social distancing, working from home, track and trace, mask-wearing and so on, while it has helped keep infection rates low, is not the end of the story.

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Indians plead for help on Twitter as country grapples with worsening Covid-19 crisis

These are interim arrangements, not the ultimate objective. They have helped stabilise the situation but are not a long-term solution.