HK needs to be more proactive, organized in fighting virus

It beggars belief how the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's healthcare system is still running, as ambulance and emergency services are overrun, hospital beds are in severe short supply, and front-line workers are overstretched. Making things worse, hundreds or maybe thousands of front-line healthcare workers are themselves infected with COVID-19.

Although the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is nowhere near as deadly as its predecessor, the Delta variant, the former has still been claiming the lives of the most vulnerable patients, as young children and the elderly have fallen prey.

The state of the economy can easily be measured by the closure of many small and medium-sized businesses. The economy will continue to falter partly because of stringent anti-pandemic measures.

Dine-in restrictions have been particularly harmful to the city's food and beverage industry, so it is no surprise that this sector is chalking up the highest unemployment rate. High-end restaurants have also been hit hard.

Meanwhile, most Hong Kong residents have exercised the highest standards of personal hygiene and abided by the preventive measures adopted by the SAR government.

While the city may have missed the golden moment for compulsory universal testing, it is still not too late to carry out universal testing. The SAR government should have made the necessary preparations for Omicron.

Even if the outbreak of the fifth wave and Omicron were inevitabilities for Hong Kong, shortages of hospital beds, front-line medical personnel, medical supplies and makeshift hospitals were certainly avoidable if the SAR's health authorities had not been sitting on their hands. The harsh reality is that, once again, Hong Kong residents have suffered. Local frontline healthcare workers are being pushed to their limits and beyond.

Going forward, the SAR government should be more proactive, more organized and more forthcoming with anticipatory policies.

As a leading educational and research hub, Hong Kong has plenty of medical experts at its disposal who can predict and postulate all possible outcomes and present appropriate solutions. But these experts only perform in an advisory capacity, as it is the government that is ultimately responsible for making decisions and implementing solutions.

It is also the responsibility of any government to set an example. In Hong Kong's case, the SAR government needs to do more to negate the deep-seated prejudice that some local residents have harbored against the Chinese mainland.

In fact, the mainland has expressed its full support for the SAR, and, ironically, it is the mainland that has been far more successful in containing COVID-19, while Hong Kong has barely managed to keep its head above water.

The SAR government has now fallen in line and said that it would execute the "dynamic zero infection "strategy. Sadly, this is too late.

All wars are fought with a commander-in-chief, supervisors, generals and foot soldiers－as a team. From the very top all the way down to those in the trenches, everyone has and knows their specific role. The division of responsibilities, knowing one's place in the organization, and cooperation are key. There should be no pushback, no insubordination and definitely no halfhearted acceptance of decisions.

The bottom line is that Hong Kong must accept that Beijing has a part to play in stabilizing the city in both the immediate future and beyond. If Hong Kong refuses to learn the many lessons of this pandemic, then its residents should all fear for the city's future.

The author is president of Wisdom Hong Kong, a think tank. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.