HONG KONG – A pandemic disease has hit Hong Kong, and the Worley family has courageously followed the rules. They wore masks. They distanced themselves socially. They stopped traveling abroad with their newborn baby to visit their grandparents.
Then, the coronavirus joined his 15-month-old son’s playgroup. Now, the three are being held in a quarantine center of the Spartan government for 10 days.
“We did everything we were asked,” said Kylie Davies-Worley, the Australian mother. “We comply with all regulations, we stay at home when we need it, but we feel that we have been treated as second-class citizens. It is not human. “
Hong Kong’s targeted approach to fighting the virus involves temporarily restricting the freedoms of some for the benefit of many. Chinese territory has avoided total blocking, largely by acting aggressively to eradicate the virus wherever it appears, be it among taxi drivers and restaurant workers, in densely populated low-income neighborhoods or in dance halls popular with older women.
The latest government measures are focused on an outbreak among expatriates, who represent about a tenth of the population of the 7.5 million Asian financial capital. Often, they hold senior positions at local offices of global banks and powerful law firms and have the resources to place Hong Kong’s policies on an international stage.
The outbreak, which has grown to 132 cases, began last week at a gym serving white-collar workers. Hundreds of close contacts have been quarantined, including a large number of children whose schools have found cases. Some expatriate parents, fearing the effects of quarantine on their children, appealed to governments for help.
The American Chamber of Commerce called for more transparency. The American, British and Swiss consulates called for moderation. Thousands signed petitions.
Much of the expatriate anger was focused on the fate of the children. Some parents feared that their families would be separated by quarantine policies, while others raised concerns that government facilities were not adequately equipped for young children or nursing mothers. For older children, the greatest damage could be psychological, the head of an international school affected by the outbreak told CNN.
Of the nearly 2,000 people in government quarantine centers on Wednesday, about 150 are under 18, according to officials.
Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that the government did not have a policy of forcibly separating children from their parents and that quarantine arrangements were made based on the circumstances of each family.
“We are a compassionate government,” said Ms. Lam at a news conference.
In a separate statement on the same day, the government specified the facilities available to children in quarantine centers and said that “any and all decisions have been made in the interests of children and their families”.
Quarantine is nothing new in Hong Kong, which has one of the strictest policies in the world. People who test positive for the virus are isolated in hospitals for monitoring and treatment, regardless of symptoms, while their close contacts are quarantined for up to 14 days, even if the test is negative. More than 42,000 people passed through government quarantine facilities during the pandemic.
This approach helped Hong Kong to keep virus cases to a minimum, with an infection rate of about 1 in 660 people, compared with at least 1 in 12 in the United States, according to a New York database. Times.
“One of the lessons from SARS is that targeted approaches, such as contact tracking and quarantine, are a useful way to limit the transmission of an infection and that it was applied with great success with the Covid pandemic in Hong Kong,” said Ben Cowling, epidemiologist and biostatistician at the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong, referring to the 2003 epidemic that killed 299 people in Chinese territory. (Hong Kong recorded 203 deaths from Covid-19.)
Contact screening and quarantine measures have reduced coronavirus transmission by a quarter since the start of the pandemic, according to an unpublished study by Dr. Cowling and colleagues, and allowed life in Hong Kong to continue with a sensation. of unthinkable normality in places like the United States. Even with the latest outbreak, the government this week extended restrictions on social distance that allow restaurants to stay open until 10 pm.
But, as the government tried to keep up with changes in the progression of the disease, it was sometimes taken by surprise, as in the case of quarantine conditions for children. Healthcare professionals are free to make quarantine decisions on a case-by-case basis, which allows for flexibility, but can also leave the public in doubt about how policies are implemented.
It does not help that public confidence in the Hong Kong government was severely damaged after a protest movement in 2019 and the subsequent imposition of a draconian national security law by central Chinese authorities. Residents questioned whether any restrictions on the pandemic were intended, at least in part, to prevent the protests from resuming.
This distrust is reflected in the lower than expected participation in a vaccination campaign across the city, with residents especially skeptical of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine. On Monday, the government said it was expanding eligibility for all people aged 30 and over to accelerate vaccination efforts.
Confusion, distrust and misinformation on social media contributed to the accusations of unequal treatment in quarantine decisions. Parents asked why some children were allowed to be quarantined at home or in hotels, instead of government facilities; Health officials say it depends on the degree of exposure to the virus.
The case of a couple who worked at the United States Consulate who tested positive for the virus, but were allowed to take their two children with them to the hospital, caused further dismay and complaints of exceptional treatment. Ms. Lam said the decision was made based on the couple’s family circumstances and not on her status as consular officials.
“Everyone is treated equally under the law and in terms of our epidemic control measures, regardless of their race, their status, their identity, whether they are more or less resourceful,” she said on Tuesday. “This is a fundamental principle in Hong Kong and we will respect that principle.”
Although the authorities gave up quarantine to some children, this reversal did not occur for members of the play group used by the Worley family. One of them, Jennifer Choi, is spending seven nights at a government center with her 13-month-old daughter.
Like the Worleys, Choi, who is from South Korea, said he was careful to follow the rules of social detachment. Her daughter usually wears face shield, although Hong Kong does not require masks for children under 2 years old.
So it was frustrating for her and other parents when authorities cited the presence of unmasked babies in the group as one of the reasons why all eight and their caregivers were being sent to government quarantine.
“What kind of logic is this?” Said Ms. Choi.
Tiffany May contributed reports.