Covid: how Hong Kong went from being a model in the fight against coronavirus to having the highest death rate in the developed world

In an open-air corridor, under a series of makeshift tents, dozens of people with or suspected of having covid wait lying on their stretchers to be admitted to the hospital.

Days later, these patients – mostly elderly – managed to enter.

The scene took place in mid-February at Caritas Hong Kong Medical Center. A month later, hospitals there continue to deal with a growing number of those infected as the territory goes through its worst wave of SARS-CoV-2.

In the last two years, Hong Kong has stood as a model in controlling the pandemic. By the end of 2021, this region of 7.5 million people had recorded just 12,650 cases and fewer than 220 deaths.

However, since February, infections and deaths have increased drastically, reaching nearly 700,000 cases and around 3,500 deaths, according to reports. Reuters.

This last Sunday, the authorities reported 32,430 new cases and 248 deaths.

And, on March 2, Hong Kong exceeded 50,000 cases in one day and also became the place with the highest death rate in the entire developed world.

Most fatal cases have been recorded in patients older than 70 years, unvaccinated.

Zero tolerance

Like mainland China, Hong Kong has adopted a strategy of zero tolerance with the virus, which implies the imposition of strict control measures, despite the fact that in other parts of the world, especially after the appearance of vaccines, the path of learning to live with the virus has been chosen.

For two years, the use of masks, limits on the number of participants in public meetings, an aggressive virus detection system and isolation of positive cases and their contacts, as well as travel restrictions, have been maintained in the territory.

Given the scale of this fifth wavethe government has introduced some changes in its health policies (social distancing measures were intensified, isolation at home was allowed, since government isolation centers are overwhelmed).

But while the head of the autonomous government, Carrie Lam, assured that Hong Kong had not planned to impose a confinement during mandatory covid tests that were originally planned for March but were later postponed, the very idea caused anxiety in the population.

What is behind the marked increase in cases?

Low vaccination rates

Among the key problems that have pushed the numbers of infections and deaths in Hong Kong are the arrival of the omicron variantmuch more contagious than its predecessors, and the low rate of vaccination among the elderly population.

According to Grace Tsoi, a BBC correspondent in Hong Kong, about 76.2% of people over the age of 11 are fully vaccinated, but less than a third of people over the age of 80 have received two doses.

“There was very little covid in Hong Kong all this time, so very few people knew people who had covid or had died from the disease. Automatically, a very important incentive for vaccination disappeared,” explained Siddharth Sridhar, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong.

Vaccine hesitancy has also taken root in Hong Kong, in part because of the little trust in authorities after the political unrest of recent years.

Hong Kong scored lowest on vaccine uptake and effectiveness compared to five other territories, including Singapore, the UK and the US, in a study conducted by the City University of Hong Kong last May.

At the same time, it was seen that this is where the belief in conspiracy theories.

Out of a maximum score of seven, Hong Kong respondents scored nearly four when asked if the vaccine was being used to track and control the population, would alter human DNA, and was developed to make money.

For months, authorities have provided little incentive for people to get vaccinated, showing little difference in how they treat people who are vaccinated and those who aren’t.

Last week, however, Lam acknowledged that the city had not done much to encourage vaccination, despite the widespread availability of vaccines and clinics to administer them, and urged people of all ages to be vaccinated, especially the elderly. (I)