Letters | Hong Kong should spare a thought for Cathay aircrew who endure isolation to keep planes in air

Readers call for understanding of crew members’ sacrifices, a review of the city’s quarantine rules to deal with local transmission, constructive criticism of lawmakers, and a better use of school resources to improve language learning

Cathay Pacific

Letters

Published: 7:00am, 5 Jan 2022

Why you can trust SCMP

I’m writing to request the Post to reduce the burden of angst and stress on Cathay Pacific flight crew. Although the current Omicron community transmissions are the result of the careless actions of an aircrew member, thousands of other crew members have complied with strict quarantine requirements for the last two years.

The sentence, “It has only itself to blame after failure to impose quarantine discipline on its staff. We all pay the price”, in your editorial “All Hongkongers must now pay the price for Cathay’s quarantine failure” (January 3) was hurtful.

Airline crew are isolated when they are overseas in hotel rooms, often facing food delivery problems. On return to Hong Kong, they are subjected to weeks of tests and isolation from the community. Every crew member spends three to four hours of their own time (sometimes more) completing airport PCR tests before returning home or to a quarantine hotel.

And every crew member and their family members face the possibility of quarantine in Penny’s Bay whenever they work. None of these are recent revelations; this has been the norm for over a year.

Crew have been and are continually paying the price of keeping planes in the air. As I write to you now, I sit isolated in a hotel room, and it’s been 25 days since I last saw my family and friends, or walked freely outdoors. Crew members such as myself have volunteered for these “isolation closed loop” rosters to keep passengers flying and reduce the Covid-19 threat to the community.

I implore you to spare a thought for our crew members who are working in extreme isolation. More accurately, the small aircrew community is sacrificing their personal liberties and paying the price for all in the city.

S. Lo, Tung Chung

Overly strict quarantine rules deter testing compliance

As we now have community transmission of Covid-19 cases, it’s time to review the rules relating to Covid-19 in Hong Kong to manage this outbreak.

Most Hongkongers have taken no notice of the international rules as they do not affect them. Because until recently we recorded no local cases for months, many Hongkongers have probably ignored that those who contract Covid-19 have to spend an additional 14 days in quarantine after they are discharged from hospital and that close contacts of confirmed Covid-19 cases could face 21 days in government-run quarantine centres.

We need people to come forward to get tested, and quarantined, who have visited places in the city which have been identified as high risk for transmission. However, if people come forward and test positive, they face extremely onerous outcomes – long stays in hospital and post-hospital quarantine, long stays in a quarantine centre for their friends and relatives.

I know most people want to do the right thing, but when the outcome is so bad, it deters them from coming forward. It seems that the authorities have not taken into consideration how their policies – focused as they were at deterring travel – would affect the local situation in the event of an outbreak.

Now would be a good time to revise the rules to better reflect what we know about transmission and infectiousness, removing post-hospital quarantine and lowering stays at a quarantine centre to seven or 10 days.

With a lower cost of compliance, we would get more compliance, and overall a better chance of getting through this outbreak fast, which is totally in line with the government’s stated zero-Covid policy.

Sarah Fairhurst, Tuen Mun

Government critics should stick to the facts

I am writing to respond to the letter, “Legco election: 3 reasons the low voter turnout is no failure” (January 1). I can’t agree more with the writer.

It is heartening that your reader from Canada has such an objective and constructive view when Western countries have been overflowing with biased media reports against both the Hong Kong and Chinese governments. Many of my friends abroad have had to deal with prejudiced coverage attacking China and China-related policies. It takes much time and patience to explain.

We’re now in 2022, let us all be rational. Facts speak for themselves. The fake news in 2019 which tore apart our city should be enough to tell us that we must have a new start. Our teenagers should be nurtured with good values.

Should the new Legislative Council members not perform well, we can criticise and give suggestions.

Sheena Chan, Yuen Long

It’s the school’s job to help ethnic minorities learn Chinese

I refer to the report, “Vague guidelines, not lack of funding, blamed for Hong Kong schools’ failure to develop ethnic minority students’ language skills” (December 14). Language learning should not be the burden of the minority when Hong Kong is committed to equality in education.

As a local student, I can imagine that Chinese is much more difficult to learn than English for those from non-Chinese-speaking families, especially given the nine tones in Cantonese.

It is the schools’ responsibility to wisely use the resources the government has allocated for schools to help students from ethnic minority communities learn Chinese. Holding workshops on Chinese culture and lessons on Chinese literature and linguistics could be helpful.

Ethnic minority students should not be separated from those from Chinese-speaking families because that would reduce their chances of learning the language through interaction.

It is disappointing that there are teachers who are reluctant to teach ethnic minority students. Our educators should have a non-discriminatory mindset.

Michelle Pang, Tuen Mun