Opinion | In response to European Chamber of Commerce: Our society cannot afford costs from subsequent waves of COVID-19

By Edward Hei Leung, DAB Standing Committee Member

In an open letter to Chief Executive Carrie Lam, Frederik Gollob, the Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce, criticized her recent policy as a significant setback that heightens the entry requirements and quarantine periods for anyone arriving from 15 high-risk countries. As Gollob said, the newly introduced measures are out of proportion in comparison with European cases. Desirable or not, Gollob's open letter sparks off a heated discussion on whether our anti-epidemic measures should adhere to zero tolerance or the so-called living-with-virus principle.

Countering with the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, we do not have a correct answer on anti-epidemic measures, but at this moment, perhaps zero tolerance is what Hong Kong needs amid the highly infectious Delta variant.

Learn from Israel's mistake

According to a media report, we have got 52 vaccinated individuals in our imported COVID-19 cases last month, not to mention some of them without significant symptoms before entering our borders. That is to say, the looser quarantine restriction we impose, the higher transmission risk of imported cases of Delta variant in our city.

Besides, let us refer to Israel, the country with one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. Despite Israel's declaration of victory two months ago, the territory now suffers from a new COVID-19 outbreak.

"If you look at the outcomes, we can say we really made mistakes when we decided to get back fully to our regular life," Professor Salman Zarka described in an interview with the Times of Israel. "The reality of living alongside the virus would be likely to mean a long period of booster shots, masks, and efforts to avoid crowding," Zarka added.

I am not saying that vaccination is useless. In fact, to me, vaccination can definitely reduce the transmission risk of COVID-19 diseases, even facing with the infamous Delta variant. Published by Israeli government, the efficacy of Pfizer-BioNTech jab against symptomatic infection was 64% in the case of Delta variant. Besides, according to the statistics from Public Health Scotland, there was a drop in protection against symptomatic illness, from 92% against the alpha variant, which was first detected in the UK, to 79% against delta among people with two doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. Yet, given the Israeli case, is vaccination record enough to avoid the transmission of Delta variant in our city?

Back to China, our motherland, the zero tolerance strategy of quarantining every case and trying to block new infections from abroad has repeated kept it largely virus-free. As a former Chinese government official said, the Central Government is now reluctant to take the risk when the current cost is visible and bearable. Though China's borders remain closed, its strong economic recovery and booming exports have boosted confidence in Beijing's hardline containment approach, the official added in the interview.

Remember that once is more than enough in anti-epidemic strategy

In fact, on contrary to the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks, the cost of zero tolerance strategy may be costly, but at least measurable. I understand that strict entry requirements and long quarantine periods, from the view of Gollob, may harm Hong Kong's status as an international business hub. However, he never says what will happen if Hong Kong faces the same outbreak of COVID-19 disease as Israel does. Remember that once is more than enough. Given the worsening business environment amid COVID-19 disease, Hong Kong society cannot afford the costs of any subsequent waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.