Hong Kong’s ham-handed COVID-19 containment policies are becoming dangerous. Measures meant to make the territory’s 7.5 million people feel safe and keep the virus at bay are no longer effective.
The most recent, obvious example is a failure to acknowledge that unvaccinated adults are now the main risk to community transmission. The territory hasn’t been able to substantially boost its inoculation rate of around 40%, nor has it mandated shots for the vulnerable and those most likely to spread the virus, including workers at quarantine hotels and airports.
Recently, the city’s health department confirmed a positive case of an unvaccinated individual who works in an airline lounge. She had no history of travel and carried the L452R mutant strain, present in the delta variant. Her entire housing estate was locked down for compulsory testing overnight. In a news conference, officials pointed to transit passengers as a potential source but didn’t initiate steps to boost shots.