The global pandemic has worsened once more, especially in Europe where it is close to getting out of control. In the U.K., newly confirmed cases have been on the rise again since early August. In the past five days, the average daily number of new diagnoses has exceeded 4,000, reflecting the severity of the situation. The epidemic in other European countries such as Spain and France are even more serious than in the U.K, registering daily cases in the tens of thousands. Countries across Europe are seeing a resurgence in COVID-19 cases and this coronavirus second wave is even more fierce than the first outbreak between March and April.

As a measure to prevent the importation of coronavirus cases, the Hong Kong SAR government has listed 10 countries including India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, South Africa, and the U.S. as high-risk areas for COVID-19. The government announced yesterday that the U.K. will also join the high-risk list. With effect as of Oct. 1, travelers from the U.K. will also be required to submit confirmation of their hotel reservation for the duration of their 14-day quarantine and present proof they are free from the coronavirus 70-hours before departure.

There are only 11 countries on the list of high-risk nations under the newly formulated government policy, however, at present, there are more than 200 regions with the coronavirus outbreak. Do Carrie Lam and those senior government officials responsible for public health believe that only these 11 countries pose a greater threat to Hong Kong than other places? Within Europe, the prolonged epidemic situations in Spain, France and Russia are worse than the U.K., but none of these three countries made it on the list. Moreover, Brazil is currently the third worst-hit country in the world with the highest number of confirmed infections after India, but it too is not included on the list. The situation is really worrisome. Did Carrie Lam’s administration randomly and recklessly draw up the list? Let us ponder carefully on this matter.

How then did the government come up with the list of high-risk COVID-19 countries? The public surely does not know nor understand why most European nations are not added to the list. If the current epidemic situation in many countries continues to deteriorate, Carrie Lam’s administration should categorize them as high-risk COVID-19 territories as soon as possible. It is essential that we have the ability to act decisively in order to manage this global pandemic. Otherwise, once the coronavirus is imported from high-risk places, epidemic preventative policies will have to be tightened again at the cost of another blow to the economy.

The author’s think tank has been tracking the epidemic situation in various countries since May this year, and found that the performance of Western countries in fighting the epidemic is far worse than that of many Asian countries or cities. One of the key reasons is the reluctance of Westerners to wear masks, hence the epidemic prevention measures are not up to the effective level. Take Canada’s Montreal as an example, the epidemic prevention work in its nursing homes is its Achilles' heel. For this reason, many elders living in nursing homes have contracted the coronavirus and their deaths accounted for as high as 70% of the total number of deaths. This clearly reflects the poor performance of Western countries in the epidemic.

The people in Hong Kong are outstanding in terms of epidemic prevention and the rate of mask-wearing in the city can be said to be the highest in the world. Additionally, most of the people in Hong Kong have self-discipline, therefore have endured the three waves of outbreaks safely. On the other hand, the performance of the SAR government in fighting the epidemic has been substandard as compared to the public. In particular, the government’s handling of prohibiting imported cases from spreading in Hong Kong has been far from ideal. When the author sees that there are only 11 countries currently included in the list of high-risk COVID-19 regions, it only means that Carrie Lam’s administration takes a laid-back approach to epidemic prevention. It is no wonder most of the people in Hong Kong have no confidence in this government.

(Andy Kwan Cheuk-chiu is an economist and the director of ACE Centre for Business and Economic Research)

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