Are there any people who have done a better job in handling the onset of the Coronavirus than the people of Hong Kong?

Taiwan has done a great job, but Taiwan is an island. Hong Kong is in mainland China. Yet we never closed our borders, kept open the vast majority of our businesses, and our airport and ports still function. We are not thriving, but our medical community has done wonders, losing only 4 patients thus far, and there is life in our city. We can handle more.

We need to restart Hong Kong.

We can’t wait around forever. We can’t expect the people will get even better at hygiene and social distancing. No place rocks a mask, applies hand sanitizer, or washes hands like Hong Kong. We know what we are doing. We know the risks. Now let us get back to earning some rewards. More to the point let's get back living.

Yes there will be a danger of a new wave, but we have handled earlier waves well. There will never be a time when a new wave is not a threat. But there will be a time when the side effects of keeping the economy closed will outweigh the health benefits of avoiding that potential next wave of infections.

The Wuhan Flu is not alone in bringing misery. Hong Kongers are better savers than most, but unemployment, debt, and lack of hope, import social ills that can easily equal what the virus from China has brought in terms of misery.

We need to get our city back to work. Offices need to re-open. Schools for those 12 and older, who know how to social distance, can hold classes. Restaurants need to be able to serve alcohol again. (Keep the bars closed for a while longer if that makes all comfortable, but a restaurant with a proper social distancing seating plan in place should be able to sell a bottle of wine).

We need to get Cathay Pacific back in the air. We need to open up air travel and open the borders with China for business travel. There is no reason we can’t test thousands per day who cross our borders before they get on a plane or cross from Shenzhen. Yes, it will not be perfect, but life is about disaster recovery not freezing in place.

If Carrie Lam had provided one service, it was not closing the border, as with the spigot of people from China still dripping, our government had a training period to get procedures in place. We are having the test run right now. As for testing overseas before boarding a plane? Complicated? Yes. Difficult or Impossible? No.

We are Hong Kong. We took the full force of what China could pour over our border from November till mid-February and we have done better than nations thousands of miles away. The Hong Kong people can handle the next challenge. Restart Hong Kong.

【蘋果論壇： https://hk.appledaily.com/column/onlineforum ，投稿網上論壇可電郵到[email protected]】

-----------------------------
【武漢肺炎】專頁
全民自救 抗疫資訊盡在《蘋果》
-----------------------------
無懼警暴 學懂自救
《抗暴之戰●法例須知》讀果 上架
-----------------------------
App內1-Click訂閱《蘋果動新聞》
按此了解更多