Opinion | As Hong Kong cautiously reopens, John Lee must beware of missing the forest for the trees

Just as making it easier for developers to force the sale of old buildings would dodge the wider issue of badly maintained ageing properties, Lee’s focus on infection numbers could obscure the bigger picture on Hong Kong’s reopening

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Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee and health secretary Lo Chung-mau arrive at a news conference in Hong Kong on September 23 to announce the scrapping of hotel quarantine, the most substantial move in the city’s push to end its isolation and salvage its status as a global financial centre. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 8:15am, 17 Oct 2022

As we head into Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s first policy address this week, public expectations have been thoroughly “managed”. With Lee saying Hong Kong was not ready to lift the remaining restrictions for inbound travellers, and his interpretation of infection numbers, we know that, unlike Japan – which last week resumed visa-free and individual travel – we are not quite back yet.

Lee sees the need for caution against lifting the three days of medical surveillance for inbound travellers. He cites the increase in imported cases with travellers no longer subject to a week of compulsory hotel quarantine, and sees the proportion as “quite large”.

Imported cases had more than doubled to 300 cases a day, out of the consistently 4,000+ strong daily infection numbers. Whether this proportion seems “quite large” is subjective. Respiratory medicine specialist Leung Chi-chiu thought imported cases posed a low risk compared to local infections.

Surely, case numbers should make up only part of the calculus of when this city is ready to further relax rules so we can return to normalcy without being unnecessarily stalled. The mental well-being of children who have been barred from educational and socialising opportunities springs to mind – October is, after all, Mental Health Month. Should the government recognise and address the anxiety, stress and social isolation aggravated by Covid-19 measures?

What should be considered is whether the severity of the variants and cases, and the growing proportion of the population having been infected and/or infected by now, allow room for Hong Kong to further welcome visitors and the talent the government is desperate to attract.

Inbound travellers have increased by 30 per cent and foreign travellers – although nowhere near pre-Covid normal levels – had risen by 80 per cent. Simply looking at imported cases to determine readiness seems inappropriate.

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