Masks, tests, quarantine centres: What can Canada learn from Hong Kong’s Covid-19 successes?

Professor Samuel Yeung-shan Wong says Canada should follow Hong Kong by supporting public mask wearing and testing all arrivals at airports for coronavirus

A study by Wong, published in Canada, says Hong Kong’s aggressive contact tracing and quarantine measures also helped restrict the spread of the disease

Reading Time:5 minutes

A woman wearing a face mask pushes a baby stroller past residential buildings near West Kowloon station in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 5:55am, 8 May 2020Updated: 8:54pm, 25 Nov 2020

Professor Samuel Yeung-shan Wong says he loves Canada, and wants it to learn from Hong Kong’s successes in the battle with Covid-19.

Wong, director of the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s school of public health, earned his medical degree at the University of Toronto in the 1990s and did his residency in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

When he chats with his Canadian cousins they tell him that “they aren’t going out”, he said. Hong Kong, meanwhile, has avoided a Canadian-style lockdown, and on Friday plans to reopen bars and other businesses.

Wong and CUHK colleagues were authors of a recent paper published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal that suggests how the rest of the world can find guidance from Hong Kong, which has suffered just four deaths from Covid-19 and 1,040 confirmed cases.

A chart from a study by Chinese University of Hong Kong researchers, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, depicts the cumulative number of deaths from Covid-19 around the world, as of April 13. Graphic: Samuel Yeung-shan Wong et al. / CMAJ

Hong Kong has had 17 straight days without a local infection, encouraging this week’s reopening.

“I thought Hong Kong would be OK, but I didn’t know it would be one of the best in the world,” said Wong.

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