As Hong Kong tightens Covid restrictions again, residents complain of being held ‘hostage’

On Wednesday leaks to the media, which had become semi-regular, claimed authorities were set to announce a third consecutive record day, with 1,161 new confirmed cases and about 800 preliminary positives. The figure doubled Tuesday’s, which in turn had doubled Sunday’s.

In response, from Thursday Hongkongers will be subject to intense social restrictions including limits of two people gathering in public, or two households in private. There were some exemptions for carers and tradespeople, but the city was warned that authorities have strong contact tracing mechanism, and would be watching.

The government also added religious premises, shopping malls, department stores, supermarkets, markets and barbers or hair salons to the forthcoming compulsory vaccine pass system, and doubled the financial penalties for non-compliance with compulsory testing orders.

Hair salons and religious venues will be shut for at least two weeks. Photos on social media showed queues out the door of one barber.

“We are now facing the most dire situation,” Lam said on Tuesday. “We have seen a surge in the number of confirmed cases and some are worried the real number would be beyond thousands each day.”

The new rules add to existing measures which has already seen much of Hong Kong largely shut down, just as other countries – including those which had also once chased zero-Covid – begin to open. It also coincides with city-wide food shortages related to border closures and Covid cases among truck drivers who bring produce in from China to the import-dependant market, leading to stressful scenes, shop closures, and inflated prices.

On Tuesday Lam conceded people felt the strategy known as “dynamic zero” came at a “great economic and social price”.

“But I would like to make it clear, people’s lives and health, and for the local medical system not to collapse, these are more in line with Hong Kong’s public interest.”

Hong Kong’s battle with Covid has been more successful than many other nations – it has recorded about 16,600 cases and 213 deaths – containing several major waves of outbreak and often bringing the number down to zero.

But the tough methods have also drawn extensive complaints for frequent changes to unnecessarily convoluted rules, sudden blanket travel bans, occasional bouts of illogicality or farce like the closure of beaches or the mass cull of pet hamsters, and instances of failure or incompetence, like the overwhelming of the Penny’s Bay quarantine facility.

The fact that this all kept continuing even as vaccination rates increased, treatments improved, and the world began to reopen to itself began to grate.

“We have done all you ask,” the HK Moms letter said.

“We sat quietly as mental health takes a toll, as families are torn apart and as businesses close down because it is all in the hope of China reopening our borders,” it said.

Reopening borders to mainland China has community support, according to recent polling. But Beijing will not give the go-ahead unless Hong Kong can reach and maintain zero-Covid.

Despite rising public anger, Lam is sticking to dynamic zero, a containment strategy with the constant goal of reaching zero cases. Health experts have said the method, of quickly controlling outbreaks and then relaxing once it’s done, is uncontroversial as long as it works.

“The zero-phase is not too bad apart from for people who have to travel,” said Prof Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong, said.

“The problem is if Hong Kong can’t sustain zero Covid what’s going to happen. If this outbreak gets bigger and bigger, what’s next? That could take a long time and there are costs in those measures.”