Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

‘Hong Kong’s zero-Covid plan unsustainable’; 5 imported cases logged

‘Hong Kong’s zero-Covid plan unsustainable’; 5 imported cases logged

Professor Ivan Hung from the government’s expert committee on vaccines says social-distancing rules can be eased only with an 80 to 90 per cent inoculation rate.

Hong Kong’s coronavirus strategy of “zero infections” cannot be for the long term, a health expert has warned, urging more elderly people to get vaccinated to create better conditions for the easing of pandemic control measures.

Professor Ivan Hung Fan-ngai, co-convenor of the Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following Covid-19 Immunisation, said in a televised interview on Sunday that the city could further relax social-distancing rules once 80 to 90 per cent of the population had been inoculated.

Hung issued his ramped-up call for vaccination as the city confirmed five imported infections, bringing the overall tally to 12,057, with 212 related deaths.


“We can maintain the zero-infection streak, but Hong Kong cannot isolate itself forever as we are an international business hub. Our strategy needs to change over time,” Hung said. “But without achieving a very high vaccination rate of up to 90 per cent, we don’t have the conditions to open up.”

On Saturday, health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee said the city had ditched travel talks with other places due to differences in strategies for containing Covid-19. She added that the government was still aiming to strike a balance between residents’ expectation of “zero infections”, while avoiding becoming “completely cut off” from the outside world.

The long-awaited travel bubble with Singapore was ditched on Thursday, after the city state moved towards a policy of “living with the virus”, in contrast to Hong Kong’s stricter approach.

The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau later said it would continue to communicate with places that had close economic ties to Hong Kong to facilitate travel during the pandemic.

Infectious disease expert Dr Leung Chi-chiu said that eventually relaxing Hong Kong’s strict pandemic control measures was a “no-brainer”, but argued the city needed to carefully consider when was the most prudent time to do so.

“Other countries have relaxed measures thinking they can ‘live with the virus’, but they still have vulnerable populations in their own countries,” he said. “They are just balancing their own political and economic needs, and Hong Kong can respect that, but it is not for us to do the same right now.”

Favourable conditions for relaxing the current restrictions would include ensuring more than 90 per cent of the elderly and chronically ill were vaccinated, Leung added.

“If we open up and there is a community spread, at least our medical system won’t be overwhelmed,” he said.

Health authorities are still engaged in a concerted effort to raise vaccination rates in the city, with only 41.3 per cent of 7.5 million residents fully vaccinated. Among the elderly, who are the most vulnerable, the rate of immunisation remains even lower, with only about 24 per cent of those aged 70 to 79 and 6.86 per cent of those aged 80 and above fully vaccinated.

Hung on Sunday reiterated the jabs were safe for elderly people, with under 2 per cent of those who had received vaccines suffering from serious side effects such as facial paralysis or strong allergic reactions. He added that his committee had ruled out links to vaccines in 22 out of 27 cases of deaths following a Covid-19 shot.

Professor Ivan Hung of the Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following Covid-19 Immunisation.


Hong Kong has largely kept coronavirus cases and deaths to a minimum, but has struggled to reopen its borders due to authorities’ insistence on a zero-infection strategy.

Under revised rules that took effect on Friday, 15 countries were added to the high-risk category in the city’s three-tier scale, requiring arrivals from those places to undergo 21 days of quarantine.

For some Hong Kong residents abroad, like the Bordia family, who were stranded in India for a year and a half due to travel restrictions, the city’s zero-infection push has led to even the best laid plans being upended overnight.

Priyanka Bordia and her husband Ankur, along with their two young daughters and two domestic helpers, left India and spent about US$25,000 (HK$194,800) to pass a total of 21 days in the Maldives and Dubai to become eligible to return to Hong Kong. But when the United Arab Emirates was moved into the high-risk travel category on Friday, they found themselves stuck once again.

“If you’re going to change the policy, you need to give time for people to react and make adjustments,” Priyanka Bordia said. “We can’t keep up with the changes like this in the long run.”


Sunday’s new infections were a crew member from the Philippines who had received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, a domestic helper from Indonesia who was fully inoculated and three arrivals from the UAE, including a nine-month-old baby. The two other travellers from the UAE had also been fully vaccinated.

Four of the new cases tested positive for the L452R mutation, which has been linked to the more infectious Delta variant, while results for the remaining person were still pending.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Health Protection said a positive coronavirus test result returned by a 32-year-old man on August 16 was probably the result of sample contamination and would no longer be classified as an infection.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×