Despite his anger and sadness, Rayan, a manager of a garment trading company, took the lift in his Lai Chi Kok building on his own, but kept the encounter on January 20 from his wife and their son, 12, and daughter, three, so as not to worry them.

A rising number of Covid-19 cases in the city has triggered a mounting wave of discrimination against ethnic minority groups – with people blaming them for the worsening coronavirus outbreak. They have been insulted, humiliated and shunned.

Ethnic minority groups became a target after a woman returning from Pakistan tested positive days after completing her 21-day quarantine and returning to her home in Sham Shui Po

After becoming infected at the quarantine hotel, the woman passed on the Omicron variant to family members and close contacts, with the expanding cluster affecting schools, locations in Sham Shui Po, and a Kwai Chung public housing estate, where hundreds of new cases have been uncovered.

More than 584,000 residents in Hong Kong are classified as being part of ethnic minority groups, accounting for about 8 per cent of the population, according to the 2016 population by-census. Most are Filipinos, Indonesians and South Asians.

Ahmed Waqas, 22, said he had faced discrimination every day, and even taking public transport from his Kwun Tong home to work in the family’s shop in Choi Hung was a challenge. Most taxi drivers refused to serve him and some drove away when he approached.

“Once I got angry and I showed a taxi driver my vaccination records and test results,” he said.

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Pakistan-born Waqas, who came to Hong Kong at age three with his parents, said whenever he took a bus, the seat next to him would always remain empty, even if it was crowded with many people standing.

“So now I prefer to stand, for the convenience of others and myself,” he said, adding that even then, other passengers would immediately walk away from him.

“It is always subtle, but still obvious. I face this kind of discrimination every day.”

Ali Tayyab, 33, assistant imam of Khatme Nubuwwat Islamic Council in Sham Shui Po, said that after the latest outbreak started, he had heard of many instances of similar discrimination, especially against Pakistanis in the district.

“Discrimination against ethnic minorities is a long-term issue in Hong Kong, but it has worsened now,” he said.

Pakistan-born Tayyab, who arrived in Hong Kong more than 30 years ago and was raised in the city, said even before the pandemic, he had personally experienced numerous instances of discrimination, including taxi drivers rejecting him, local Chinese on public transport humiliating him, or landlords refusing to rent flats to him because “he would make curry in the house”.

Tayyab said he had also lived in Britain and South Africa before, but neither was as hostile to ethnic minorities as Hong Kong. He called on the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), an anti-discrimination watchdog, to step up efforts to educate the public.

He said that although the government had made efforts to translate its information into different languages, some versions were hard to read. He urged the authorities to do better in their communications with ethnic minority groups on the latest anti-pandemic measures.

Tayyab added that his community would also continue to do its part to help with the city’s fight against the coronavirus. He has urged members to get tested for the virus and vaccinated. His mosque handed out about 350 free test kits on Friday.

Jay Li Ting-fung, a member of the Sham Shui Po district council, said the overall turnout of residents, including members from ethnic minority groups, for Covid-19 testing in the area was not high. He noted that some government information was still limited to English and Chinese.

He urged the authorities to improve the release of information in different languages and provide more help for ethnic minorities, who did not have many support groups within the community.

Li said that ethnic minority groups had made efforts to help fight the pandemic, with some religious organisations approaching him for help to install the government’s “Leave Home Safe” Covid-19 risk-exposure app.

Mufti Muhammad Arshad, the chief imam of Hong Kong, appealed to the public not to blame ethnic minority groups or any other for the infections.

“We are living side by side together with the local Chinese people. We have a good history of cooperation and we are supporting each other.”

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“We should fight the virus united without creating differences within our society. The virus is the enemy of every one of us, and no community or member of any community is intentionally harming others,” he added.

EOC chief Ricky Chu Man-kin last week urged people to stop the blame game.

He said various sectors and communities had been blamed for the pandemic and discriminated against since it started two years ago, including dancers, domestic helpers, bar-goers and gym users.

In the current fifth wave, cabin crew, pet shops, and ethnic minorities became the latest target, Chu said, adding some hamster owners were barred from going to work if they did not abandon their pets, while South Asians were worried about worsening discrimination against them.

“Do not discriminate against an entire sector or community based on the background of the infected persons,” he wrote in an article published on the commission’s website. “They are, in fact, patients, and should not be spurned and regarded as sinners.”