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How does ‘zero-Covid’ end? From Hong Kong to Australia and New Zealand, questions mount over exit strategy
- As Delta spreads and hopes for herd immunity fade, economies taking a zero-tolerance approach face questions over whether they can ever exit their bubbles
- With no clear end in sight to quarantines and lockdowns, some say it is time to embrace new ways of thinking about the pandemic’s toll and prioritise mental health
8-MIN READ8-MIN
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When Hong Kong announced in June that vaccinated residents would be able to shorten hotel quarantine with a positive antibodies test that would remain valid for three months, frequent business traveller David Granger did not bother contacting his nearest clinic.
The Hong Kong-based brand strategist, who has racked up no fewer than seven stays in quarantine during the pandemic, did not want to waste his money on a test he was certain would soon become worthless.
Granger’s suspicions proved correct this week when Hong Kong abruptly scrapped a reduction in hotel quarantine to seven days for vaccinated arrivals just days after it began, sparking travel chaos for countless residents returning from overseas.
“Serology testing was a lame attempt at opening up travel a little, and failed before it started,” Granger said. “Ultimately it’s zero-Covid thinking. Which is a goal that is unattainable.”
The Hong Kong-based brand strategist, who has racked up no fewer than seven stays in quarantine during the pandemic, did not want to waste his money on a test he was certain would soon become worthless.
Granger’s suspicions proved correct this week when Hong Kong abruptly scrapped a reduction in hotel quarantine to seven days for vaccinated arrivals just days after it began, sparking travel chaos for countless residents returning from overseas.
“Serology testing was a lame attempt at opening up travel a little, and failed before it started,” Granger said. “Ultimately it’s zero-Covid thinking. Which is a goal that is unattainable.”
As the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the rest of the world, Asia-Pacific economies like Hong Kong attracted praise and envy by embracing a “zero-Covid” strategy that stamped the virus out. But as the global crisis nears the two-year mark, the region’s zero-Covid club are facing mounting questions about how they will ever get out of their bubble.
From Australia and New Zealand to mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Delta variant, a hyper-cautious public health establishment and policy flip-flopping have cast a cloud of uncertainty over the endpoint of sealed borders and tough public health measures such as lockdowns.
Despite expectations that “zero-Covid” economies will reopen as vaccination rates rise, mixed messaging from political leaders and public health experts has raised questions about when – or even if – that will actually happen, even as Europe and North America, which have suffered some 2 million deaths, increasingly learn to live with the virus.
From Australia and New Zealand to mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Delta variant, a hyper-cautious public health establishment and policy flip-flopping have cast a cloud of uncertainty over the endpoint of sealed borders and tough public health measures such as lockdowns.
Despite expectations that “zero-Covid” economies will reopen as vaccination rates rise, mixed messaging from political leaders and public health experts has raised questions about when – or even if – that will actually happen, even as Europe and North America, which have suffered some 2 million deaths, increasingly learn to live with the virus.
04:55
Hong Kong, Australia’s goal to eliminate Covid-19 ‘not sustainable’, says infectious disease expert
Hong Kong, Australia’s goal to eliminate Covid-19 ‘not sustainable’, says infectious disease expert
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