Coronavirus hits and misses in roller-coaster year for Hong Kong: horror cruise, rules fatigue and a call the health minister will never forget
- First local cases were recorded in January 2020, and since then, city has weathered four waves of infections, each with its own challenges
- With the tally nearing 10,000 cases, border controls are at their tightest and residents have seen ebb and flow of social-distancing rules
Hong Kong officially launched its battle with the coronavirus a year ago as the first cases, imported from epicentre Wuhan, were confirmed. One year on, the city is still mired in its war against Covid-19, recording nearly 10,000 infections and more than 160 deaths. In the first of a two-part series, the Post reviews how Hong Kong faced a roller-coaster ride of unprecedented challenges amid the pandemic.
The world would soon experience its deadliest pandemic in more than a century, on a scale not seen since the Spanish flu in 1918. On Saturday, global Covid-19 infections approach 100 million, with deaths in excess of 2 million.
As Chan hung up the phone, her mind turned to preparing the city for an emergency response and containing the virus. Within days, the government drew up contingency plans for hospitalisation and quarantine.
Then on January 22 last year, two arrivals from Wuhan were declared as suspected coronavirus patients. A day later, their infections were confirmed, becoming the first Covid-19 patients in the city. At the time the disease was not yet named.
08:20
Hong Kong government ‘working very, very promptly’ to get Covid-19 vaccines, Sophia Chan says
“I have had a wartime mentality since December 31, 2019,” the health secretary said in an interview with the Post. “We have always been very proactive in terms of preparing for the epidemic, even when the virus had not even arrived in Hong Kong.”