Coronavirus: Hong Kong’s ‘zero infection’ policy unsustainable, expert warns, urging elderly to get vaccinated; 5 imported cases confirmed

Professor Ivan Hung from the government’s expert committee on vaccines says social-distancing rules can be eased only with an 80 to 90 per cent inoculation rate

At present only 41.3 per cent of the city’s population have been fully vaccinated

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People queue for the BioNTech vaccine in Hong Kong’s Sai Ying Pun. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 1:14pm, 22 Aug 2021Updated: 10:30pm, 22 Aug 2021

Hong Kong’s coronavirus strategy of “zero infections” cannot be for the long term, a health expert has warned, urging more elderly people to get vaccinated to create better conditions for the easing of pandemic control measures.

Professor Ivan Hung Fan-ngai, co-convenor of the Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following Covid-19 Immunisation, said in a televised interview on Sunday that the city could further relax social-distancing rules once 80 to 90 per cent of the population had been inoculated.

Hung issued his ramped-up call for vaccination as the city confirmed five imported infections, bringing the overall tally to 12,057, with 212 related deaths.

“We can maintain the zero-infection streak, but Hong Kong cannot isolate itself forever as we are an international business hub. Our strategy needs to change over time,” Hung said. “But without achieving a very high vaccination rate of up to 90 per cent, we don’t have the conditions to open up.”

On Saturday, health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee said the city had ditched travel talks with other places due to differences in strategies for containing Covid-19. She added that the government was still aiming to strike a balance between residents’ expectation of “zero infections”, while avoiding becoming “completely cut off” from the outside world.

The long-awaited travel bubble with Singapore was ditched on Thursday, after the city state moved towards a policy of “living with the virus”, in contrast to Hong Kong’s stricter approach.

The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau later said it would continue to communicate with places that had close economic ties to Hong Kong to facilitate travel during the pandemic.

Infectious disease expert Dr Leung Chi-chiu said that eventually relaxing Hong Kong’s strict pandemic control measures was a “no-brainer”, but argued the city needed to carefully consider when was the most prudent time to do so.