Letters | Coronavirus: Hong Kong must remain on guard against a fourth wave of Covid-19
- Continued discovery of cases makes further relaxing of pandemic measures difficult. The best way to help businesses reopen is eliminating infections within the community through social distancing, community surveillance and contact tracing
According to the Hong Kong University School of Public Health’s real-time dashboard for Covid-19 in the city, the effective reproduction number for the coronavirus – the average number of people infected by one patient – lingered at 0.5 to 0.6 for the past month. This suggests the outbreak is currently under control with two patients required to infect one person. That being said, the figure has failed to significantly dip any further – unlike after the second wave died down – and is itself retrospective in nature, lagging the real-time trend by one to two weeks.
Many aspects of the economy, in particular the catering and retail industries, came to a grinding halt when the outbreak intensified. The continued discovery of cases renders further relaxation of social distancing measures difficult, further delaying a return to business as usual. The best way to allow businesses to reopen is a determined effort to eliminate infections within the community by upholding strict social distancing measures, enhancing community surveillance and rigorous contact tracing.
Dr Fu Hong Chung, Kowloon City