How Hong Kong beat coronavirus and averted lockdown

When Apple closed its retail shops across the globe amid the coronavirus pandemic, a handful of retailers have been exempt, together with its six places in Hong Kong.

Actually, a lot of Hong Kong has felt comparatively regular this 12 months in contrast with its friends, which enacted strict lockdown measures.

Since its first confirmed case of Covid-19 on Jan. 22, Hong Kong went by phased closures of presidency places of work, faculties, gyms and bars. However different providers have been comparatively unaffected, together with dine-in service at eating places, outlets, malls, and trains.

Immediately, workplace staff are again to enterprise and town has reopened its gyms and even nightclubs.

By all accounts, Hong Kong’s scenario might have been unhealthy. It is one of many world’s densest cities. Public transit is usually packed. There are even direct flights and trains from Wuhan, the Chinese language metropolis the place Covid-19 first emerged late final 12 months. Actually, greater than 2.5 million folks arrived from mainland China in January alone.

With a inhabitants of seven.5 million folks, Hong Kong has recorded round 1,200 instances. Singapore, by comparability has had greater than 43,000 instances, amid an outbreak in migrant employee housing. That triggered the city-state to enact lockdown measures for greater than two months.

In distinction, Hong Kong had consecutive weeks of zero new instances.

Hong Kong managed to keep away from a lockdown whereas containing — and to a big extent — eliminating Covid-19.

Here is 5 the explanation why Hong Kong managed to keep away from lockdown whereas defeating Covid-19:

Many individuals in Hong Kong bear in mind dwelling by the extreme acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003.

“We had by no means skilled one thing like that at the moment,” Leah Choi instructed CNBC recalling her expertise of rising up in Hong Kong. “However due to our expertise throughout SARS, the Hong Kong persons are way more alert.”

Choi recalled academics taking her temperature and having to put on face masks on a regular basis.

“Immediately, the Hong Kong persons are way more diligent when going through the coronavirus outbreak, the place we all know what to do as a result of we already had an expertise of what might occur if we do not take all these security measures towards the virus,” she stated.

The outbreak, first recognized in 2002, ultimately got here to contaminate practically 1,800 folks in Hong Kong. Following the well being disaster, Hong Kong’s authorities created the Heart for Well being Safety, which makes a speciality of illness prevention and management.

“Once they first heard about instances occurring in mainland China, folks took it significantly,” Keiji Fukuda, professor and director on the Faculty of Public Well being at The College of Hong Kong instructed CNBC.

“The general public actually responded and so, in most locations within the metropolis, you can actually see that most individuals have been carrying masks,” he stated referring to the times following town’s first confirmed case.

Hong Kong closed 9 of its 12 border checkpoints in late January, leaving the remaining three open to facilitate the move of products. Because the scenario advanced, town banned all non-residents from coming into, beginning on March 25. By early April, there have been solely about 100 day by day customer arrivals and those that arrived needed to endure a strict 14-day quarantine.

Marco Bellanda, a Hong Kong resident of six years, flew from his hometown in Italy again to town on Might 10, the place he was instantly examined for Covid-19. Regardless of his take a look at returning destructive, he was nonetheless required to quarantine for 14 days. Throughout that interval, the federal government tracked his location by an app and an digital wristband he was required to put on. 

“I’ve to sleep. I’ve to bathe. I’ve to cook dinner. I’ve to do every part with this,” he instructed CNBC over video name whereas in quarantine in his residence. When he returned to his condo following his preliminary take a look at, he was instructed to stroll round his residence, so the federal government might guarantee his motion over the subsequent two weeks would strictly be inside his residence’s coordinates.

“I can not go downstairs or exterior, in any other case I believe it can ring,” he stated. “Really, I do not wish to strive as a result of the wonderful could be HK$25,000  ($3,225) and 6 months jail.”

Apart from the wristband, Marco has additionally acquired sporadic calls from authorities officers on WhatsApp, making certain he was residence and asking if he had any signs or was feeling unwell.

As an infection ranges plunged, town steadily eased a few of its border controls on the finish of April.

Contact tracing is a technique of finding individuals who could have been uncovered to Covid-19. In lots of instances, these persons are instructed to self-isolate for 14 days to watch for any potential signs. The observe has been used extensively throughout many Asian nations in the course of the coronavirus pandemic.

Upon his return to Hong Kong, authorities officers requested Bellanda to write down down the license plate of the taxicab that introduced him residence. This manner authorities might contact the taxi driver in case Bellanda later examined constructive for Covid-19.

The Hong Kong authorities additionally updates an interactive on-line map depicting detailed details about all of the confirmed instances across the metropolis, together with dates and instances of motion.

Hong Kong’s comparatively small inhabitants has made it simpler for the federal government to watch and management the motion of its folks versus locations with greater populations.

For instance, the U.S. has had totally different responses to the pandemic on the federal, state, county and metropolis ranges, making a coordinated strategy way more difficult.

Professor Fukuda, who beforehand labored on the World Well being Group, has lived in each the U.S. and Asia. He thinks cultural outlook has performed a big function in the best way the outbreak has been contained within the latter.

“If you will get folks and the authorities to work collectively, it is an amazingly highly effective mixture,” he stated. “There is a very excessive consciousness about not eager to have an effect on different folks and never wanting to place them at danger. So, when the general public says, we’re a part of the rationale why issues are going properly, it is completely true.”

Fukuda highlighted politicization has hindered the U.S. and its skill to comprise the outbreak. The U.S. has now reported greater than 2.6 million confirmed instances.

“In Asia, there’s a very important diploma of concern about different folks, about caring for one another,” he stated. “Within the States, it has actually uncovered that there are huge cultural variations within the nation. So, whether or not you’re within the rural areas or within the cities, whether or not you’re in purple states or blue states.”

“Whereas in Hong Kong, if something, the outbreak has introduced folks nearer collectively,” he stated.