torsdag 19. mars 2020

Hong Kong managed to contain the virus, now it's worried international travelers will bring it back

After months on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic, Hong Kong increasingly looks like a model for how to handle it. Despite having numerous transport links with mainland China, where the first cases were detected, and a mobile population working on either side of the border, Hong Kong has kept its number of cases comparatively low.

To date, Hong Kong, which is home to more than 7 million people, has fewer than 170 cases and four deaths, while other countries and cities have reported hundreds, even thousands, of infections. This has been achieved through intense efforts, including having millions work at home and exercising social distancing. The biggest visual sign of these efforts has been the almost complete ubiquity of face masks, which began appearing soon after the first coronavirus cases were reported in China, (despite a technical ban on them related to last year's anti-government protests), and soon were seen everywhere, sparking concerns about shortages and long queues at pharmacies that did stock them.