Hong Kong’s Covid measures
diminishing in the eyes of the people, while the loss and damage caused by COVID policies – in terms of economic loss, societal disconnect, for example – became more and more severe. As time dulls the danger of COVID and heightens people’s want for freedom, they begin to disregard these COVID policies and do not adhere as tightly to them. This trend is accelerated by the highly- restrictive Zero-COVID policies, which further amplified the effect of pandemic fatigue. 11 Zero-COVID did prove itself to be effective at resisting more traditional forms of COVID and was widely acclaimed worldwide by pathology experts as the perfect model against the disease. However, as time dragged on, and COVID persisted globally, Zero-COVID gradually grew to be unsustainable. Such highly stringent policies were originally designed to be implemented for a short period of time only, and not for the better part of two years as seen in the city. As the world steps into an era of coexisting with COVID, it is inevitable that Hong Kong will have to open its borders someday, and abandon Zero-COVID as a thing of the past, embracing living with COVID fully.
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