As I was packing up for our trip back to Hong Kong after a short visit to my country, Bangladesh, on Jan 30 last year, a news alert popped up on my phone: Hong Kong schools, kindergartens closed for two more weeks as coronavirus fears grow. The schools were then already on an extended holiday until Feb 17 following the detection of the first two cases of COVID-19 in the city. Worrying what terrible health hazards were awaiting us on our return to Hong Kong, my relatives had a good excuse to hold us back there. “What’s the point of going back there amid such an epidemic when schools have been closed for such a long time? Since there is no such infection here, can’t you request your boss to work from home here?” my mother-in-law said. My wife and sons — older one a P5 student and the other K2 in Hong Kong — looked a bit undecided. But I didn’t have an iota of doubt. “What if there are outbreaks in Bangladesh too? Let’s get back before the borders are closed,” I said. I was confident, not just because of my own experience of healthcare services in Hong Kong but also of the city’s experience of tackling SARS back in 2002-03, that if I contracted the infection, I had the chance of getting better treatment in Hong Kong. And, like I feared, Hong Kong suspended flights from Bangladesh a few weeks later following major outbreaks there.
We are lucky that vaccination is going to begin here next month. Let’s get the jab, fortify ourselves against the virus and get back to normal life, as soon as possible
Fast forward to August 2020: Hong Kong was finally seeing considerable success in fighting the third wave of COVID-19 outbreaks, but the fear of contracting the virus got us all on our nerves. As for myself, an asthma patient for almost two decades, it’s a constant fight to keep my cool. Headache, flu, cough or tickling in the throat or blocked nose are no more the innocent things of the past. Extra cautious not to fall sick, I was looking for scopes for testing without raising an alarm, realizing well that I should not bother the heavily burdened health workers with a testing request out of panic. To my utter relief, it’s then that the SAR government finalized a universal testing program to screen all the residents with the aid of a mainland team. In the face of a crisis of this magnitude, the sanest thing to do, to me, is to take stock of one’s strengths and weaknesses before one could devise his/her battle plan.
About 1.78 million out of the city’s 7.5 million people took part in the two-week program, leading to the uncovering of 42 infections. It’s true that it’s not a big number considering the arrangement. But couldn’t it make the cause more successful had more people taken part in the testing? One thing that might have discouraged people from doing that could be some well-known medical professionals’ dissuading them from coming forward. But who can disagree the program did significantly ramp up Hong Kong’s testing capacity, offering a data reference and a social basis for the government to develop and implement pandemic prevention measures in the future? The authorities are now in a better position to decide whether to focus on target group testing or do rapid and large-scale testing when there are cluster outbreaks.
Fast forward, again, to the first week of this month: Fresh waves of infection — many from new and more infectious variants of the coronavirus — swept countries in the West and were reported in the SAR too, with several countries, beginning with the United Kingdom, conducting inoculation thanks to scientists who moved at record speed to create new coronavirus vaccines. As countries across the world are competing to get their consignments of the vaccines — which are the most effective tool to date to overcome the pandemic — a local media report on an online survey of 412 young people in Hong Kong attracted my attention. It says many of the city’s young people are worried about contracting the virus but 2 in 5 won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine. The top three reasons reportedly cited by those against taking the jabs are doubts over their effectiveness, worries about side effects and lack of choice.
During previous public health emergencies, it took years to introduce vaccines for public use, ensuring proper public verification protocols before authorization for such use. But the need-pressure this time is immense and forces countries to go for emergency use of vaccines. They are well aware that something can go wrong, but many more people could die if they wait for completing all the procedures to eliminate the risks. As I write this article (6:45 pm, Jan 17, 2021), the John Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard shows the global tally of infections at 94.56 million and deaths at 2.02 million, with the numbers jumping at a great speed every second.
Hong Kong has to date secured 22.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccines from three sources — Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Fosun-Pfizer-BioNTech — more than enough to immunize everyone in the city. Efficacy rates of these vaccines are already widely reported. Noting people’s possible concerns about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines the SAR government is purchasing, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor recently vowed that her government would spare no efforts in addressing the concerns. The government is planning to set up an indemnity fund to provide financial aid for those who might suffer serious side effects from the jabs, she said.
On the options to choose vaccines, Lam said Hong Kong people will be able to choose their vaccines by deciding when and where to get injected according to the vaccines’ availability. “We don’t anticipate that there will be more than one type of vaccine available at the same time at a certain place for people to choose. … But residents will know which vaccine is to be injected when entering an injection center and then decide whether to be vaccinated right there,” Lam said. Fair enough for me!
While there is a recent dip in the number of daily new cases in Hong Kong, untraceable cases remain a major concern. Sixteen of the 51 local infections recorded on Sunday were from unknown sources. Since the first outbreaks of the pandemic, Hong Kong people have been lauded for proactively maintaining hygiene instructions and social distancing, and I believe they would continue to do that. We are lucky that vaccination is going to begin here next month. Let’s get the jab, fortify ourselves against the virus and get back to normal life, as soon as possible.
The author is a Hong Kong-based journalist.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
