Hong Kong government cannot surrender to the epidemic

This Tuesday (February 8), Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor met with the media before the Executive Council to answer a reporter's question about the government's insistence on not implementing universal testing. For the best benefit, these capabilities must be used in a focused manner, not scattered at will.”

However, as the number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong exceeded 1,000 the next day, this kind of thinking is really out of touch with the latest development of the situation.

In fact, a series of recent government measures, including reducing the frequency of mandatory testing requirements, launching a home quarantine plan, converting the Penny's Bay Quarantine Center into an isolation and treatment facility, and even calling on the public to stay at home and wait for those who have initially tested positive and do not go to the hospital's A&E department, etc. All gave people the impression that the outbreak was "determined to lose", so they also abandoned universal testing and other more aggressive anti-epidemic measures.

Universal testing should be on the agenda

If a measure or policy is something a government must do, it clearly cannot use force or failure to justify refusal.

Moreover, the experience of the past years has taught us that the quarantine inspection, working from home and even the cancellation of MPF "hedging", the introduction of the National Security Law, the legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law, etc., which officials and civil servants did not say at first that their ability may not be able to do it , the result can be successfully implemented?

The same is true for national testing.

Moreover, as Lin Zhengyue said on the same occasion, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council has conveyed to her that the central government will provide support at any time in accordance with the needs of the SAR, which includes strengthening the testing force in Hong Kong. .

If the reason why the Hong Kong government cannot implement universal testing is simply because the testing force is insufficient, then the Chief Executive can further ask the central government for more support to support universal testing.

Hong Kong launched a nationwide test in September 2020. With the assistance of the mainland, a Fire Eye Laboratory was set up at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park Sports Centre, processing a total of about 1.8 million samples.

(File photo/Photo by Gao Zhongming)

Travel with peace of mind

At the same time, in order to strengthen the anti-epidemic effect, "Travel with Peace of Mind" should also introduce real-name and tracking functions as soon as possible.

In fact, the program has been connected to the "Hong Kong Health Code" system at the end of last year. Later, the function of storing vaccination records was added. It has become more and more closely related to personal information. In addition, the government stated long ago that it has tried to implement the automatic Bluetooth recording function. There is no longer any excuse to delay implementation amid the severe epidemic.

Of course, many citizens are still skeptical about the authorities collecting more information through "Safe Travel", but everyone must understand that this is necessary to prevent and control the epidemic, and most similar programs in other countries and regions have similar functions.

The Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data Chung Lai-ling said last year that the old version of the program protects personal data better than "filling paper". If the community is concerned that this situation will change after the program is upgraded, the authorities can take the initiative to ask the Privacy Commissioner to make an assessment to ensure that Data is kept independently and periodically deleted.

All in all, although the epidemic situation in Hong Kong is becoming more severe, the authorities still have many anti-epidemic tools that can be used, such as the aforementioned implementation of nationwide testing and upgrading of the "Safe Travel" app, and even the deployment of civil servants from other government departments to directly participate in the front-line epidemic prevention work. There is absolutely no reason to surrender to the mutant virus early!

Epidemic prevention measures coupled with strong public self-discipline have become the key 01 Forum.

Li Haoran｜Privacy Issues of Real-Name Anti-epidemic Measures