As COVID-19 caseloads surge by the day, normal life in Hong Kong has come to a grinding halt. Dine-in services are curfewed, social venues have closed their doors, and people have been largely confined to their homes.
But even as daily caseloads already exceed 6,000 per day, experts predict that figures will only peak next month, during which we may see as many as 28,000 to 30,000 cases per day. Daily mortality rates may also rise from single digits up to several hundred.
It’s only a matter of time before our healthcare system buckles under the pressure, after which the economy will shortly follow as will life as we know it.
With President Xi Jinping’s instructions for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government to take on the “main responsibility” of managing the pandemic and making it the overriding priority, it’s another painful reminder of just how bad things are right now.
The goal of the central government is to ensure social and political stability are maintained in Hong Kong, which is also a priority for our SAR government
Compared with countries like the US and the UK, Hong Kong is faring well. But compared to other Chinese cities, we are trailing far, far behind.
Therefore, we must heed President Xi’s words and make it our responsibility to battle the pandemic. Alone we cannot fight this virus, but together we can protect ourselves, protect one another, and protect our home city.
Although the SAR government had been until very recently reluctant to seek help from the Chinese mainland, we are long past the point of pride to ask for a helping hand; nor can the central government stand idly by while Hong Kong sinks.
When the city was under siege in 2019, the central authorities stepped in by promulgating the National Security Law for Hong Kong. Shortly after this, order returned to our streets.
Deng Xiaoping once said, “Don’t ever think that everything will be all right if Hong Kong’s affairs were administered solely by Hong Kong people while the central government does nothing. This isn’t feasible and simply wouldn’t work.”
In that vein, we must humbly accept that the current situation is beyond Hong Kong’s control. But thankfully, we have a powerful motherland who can lend us a hand. And given the mainland’s ongoing success in tackling COVID-19, how can we not accept wholeheartedly the mainland’s help?
There is a popular Chinese adage that goes, “When trouble occurs at one spot, help comes from all quarters”.
As a medical professional, I want to remind everyone that one of the tenets of my profession is that all life is precious. The central government is abiding by this same principle in helping Hong Kong residents. With the help of the central government and Guangdong provincial authorities, I am confident that we can minimize the damage and survive this wave of the outbreak.
Over a year ago, Vice-Premier Han Zheng, who is also the head of the central leading group on Hong Kong and Macao work, met with Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and stressed that tackling COVID-19 should be the SAR’s top priority.
And this same message is now reiterated one year on by the top leader in the central authorities; the meaning must be that our Hong Kong SAR government needs to rethink and reprioritize its approach.
Xi’s instructions also implored the SAR government to “take all necessary measures” to combat COVID-19. This means mobilizing all our available resources and manpower that can be mobilized. But speaking as a doctor, I believe that we still haven’t wielded everything in our arsenal.
We have some 15,000 doctors in Hong Kong, a third of whom are based in the public sector and have been working tirelessly on the front lines. We need the SAR government to mobilize the remaining two-thirds of private doctors to help the public healthcare system with their excessive caseloads.
Only days ago did the Hospital Authority call on the private medical sector to step in. Sixty doctors, including me, volunteered; 1,000 private doctors are also administering vaccines across the city.
If one doctor can vaccinate 100 people a day, this means that the 1,000 doctors in the private sector alone can achieve 3 million vaccinations within a month.
Nearly 25 percent of Hong Kong residents are still not fully vaccinated; and over 6 million people have yet to receive their booster jabs.
If all available resources and manpower are administered in an efficient manner, then we can vaccinate the entire population of Hong Kong and eventually stop resorting to lockdown measures.
We can also call upon retired nurses and over 10,000 practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine to fill the gaps in staff shortages.
Speaking bluntly, when it comes to resources, the SAR government’s coffers can certainly afford to do more.
This means buying more beds for patients and building makeshift hospitals with help from mainland authorities. Venues like the Hong Kong Coliseum, cruise terminals and even cruise ships can easily be converted into temporary isolation wards, if nothing more.
However, I would say that university dormitories remain off-limits, as these spaces are currently required by students, some of whom are not locals.
We also need to instate universal testing to screen out asymptomatic carriers in our community. If we can identify, isolate and treat these invisible carriers, we can cut transmission chains sooner rather than later.
At present, we cannot import mainland doctors because of restrictions in existing legislation. However, a sensible workaround would be to have institutions, such as the Hospital Authority, apply to the Medical Council of Hong Kong for limited registration. Under the current circumstances, the council would no doubt allow this. And if this rule needs to be changed, then our legislators can enact the necessary laws to make this happen.
We may also ask the central government to audit our prevention policy, given that two years on, we are struggling to keep our heads above water.
But ultimately, the goal of the central government is to ensure social and political stability are maintained in Hong Kong, which is also a priority for our SAR government. Therefore, it is important that basic supplies of necessities are made available to our residents so that they feel safe and secure.
Although the central authorities have made it abundantly clear that they are here to lend a hand, the onus of stabilizing Hong Kong and achieving “zero COVID” to protect lives and public health rests squarely on the shoulders of our SAR government — more pertinently, its leaders — to mandate. In times of emergency, we cannot leave matters such as vaccination and testing to the devices and personal preferences of the people.
In times like these, there is no such thing as “one country, two systems”; we are a single country fighting together and united by a single goal: saving lives.
The author is president of the think tank Wisdom Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.