End of Hong Kong isolation does not mean goodbye to vaccines and masks
- Move comes as city’s hybrid immunity from Covid-19 jabs and previous infection grows, but there are still health measures to follow
Hong Kong’s exit from zero tolerance of Covid-19 has been one of starts and stops. The end is in sight, after the scrapping of mandatory isolation of those who test positive for the coronavirus from January 30.
Isolation of infected people along with the quarantine of travellers, abandoned in September, once formed twin pillars of a scientific response to the pandemic. But they had long set Hong Kong apart from a world that had moved on, except for the rest of China.
Now even the mainland has announced an end to isolation for patients as part of a radical downgrading of the disease as a public health threat.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu hailed the scrapping of the five-day isolation mandate as a necessary step for the city to return to normality, which is key to economic recovery. Symbolically it is probably the most significant.
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Isolating infected cases is now work that is never done. They are endemic in the community – often asymptomatic or mild, widely undetected and, as hybrid immunity from vaccination and previous infection grows, increasingly benign.
Isolation contrasted with an approach elsewhere more akin to living with seasonal flu – stay home and, perhaps, wear a mask. Hong Kong is finally living with the virus, a concept that once gave rise to fears among officials and experts of wider contagion.
“The government should shift from clear-cut management to one that allows citizens to make decisions and take responsibility for themselves,” Lee said, adding that the decision was based on science and risk assessment, given the city now had a high vaccination and infection rate, and the situation had not worsened since the border with the mainland reopened. He said Covid-19 should be treated as any other upper respiratory disease under the new normal.
The next stop on the journey to full normality will be the scrapping of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test requirements for those crossing the border, which depends on the agreement of mainland authorities. Meanwhile, long queues at some PCR test centres – even though only 60 per cent of total capacity has been used – show organisation may have been better ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
It is better late than never for Lee to pledge to improve the online booking system and instruct departments to improve the dissemination of information about places with available test quotas.
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The scrapping of the mask mandate will complete the journey back to normality. No one should hold their breath.
Exemplary compliance with the mask rule, and hand sanitation, have not only played an incalculable part in the fight against Covid-19, but also are a defence against concurrent flu infection, which is a concern for health authorities this winter. Flu vaccination is as important as ever.
