My TakePolitics and public health a deadly concoction
- Omicron has exposed the fatal flaws of the Hong Kong government, which has failed to devise an exit strategy commensurate with the capabilities, resources and social system of the city, that is, our ‘actual situation’
The speed and efficiency with which authorities in Shenzhen have locked down the city of 17 million residents to contain an Omicron outbreak has been breathtaking.
Critics have predictably complained why Hong Kong couldn’t do the same. We are still talking about citywide testing, they say, instead of doing it.
I thought Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor explained well at a press conference why the city couldn’t have done the same.
But far from excusing her government, she actually dug a bigger hole for herself. If the city doesn’t have the capabilities, resources and social system to follow the mainland, as she said, it’s no wonder it is failing, because it is trying to follow the goal but not the method of the mainland.
“For us to learn from Shenzhen and conduct three universal tests in a few days, I’m afraid we are not yet able to do so,” she said. Quite!
The mainland has been highly successful with its “test, trace and isolate” strategy over the past two years by developing the necessary capabilities, resources and organisation.