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Coronavirus Hong Kong
OpinionComment
Naubahar Sharif
Naubahar Sharif

Opinion | Hong Kong faces hard questions over pain of pandemic restrictions

  • Students, athletes, businesses and Hong Kong itself are experiencing stunted growth while the rest of the world leaves us behind
  • The city and its leaders must look beyond short-term issues and ask hard questions about the end game and how much more Hongkongers can take

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A pedestrian walks past closed retail shops in Kwun Tong on March 31. The retail sector is among the hardest-hit as businesses across Hong Kong struggle to survive amid the city’s many pandemic restrictions. Photo: Edmond So
Naubahar Sharif
During the past few days, the focus of Hong Kong’s pandemic response has shifted to the best timing to administer a fourth vaccine dose, the possible rise of imported cases and the administration of voluntary self-testing over three consecutive days.

As we enter the second quarter of 2022, which coincides with the second quarter of Hong Kong’s fifth wave, the administration and Hong Kong’s population would do well to take advantage of this moment to take stock of the enormity of the price we have paid – and continue to pay with each passing day – to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

For me, there is no better way to characterise the price we have paid than the phrase “stunted growth”. Our children’s education has been stunted between February 2020 and now by the stop-start nature of their in-person schooling.

The most fortunate children have had the opportunity to partake in at most six months of face-to-face, full-day education on school premises. The least fortunate have not had a single day experiencing that format for some 24 months. Over the course of the pandemic, the consensus of educators and researchers makes clear that much has been lost. We have paid an incalculable cost that weighs on the development of students’ social skills, mental aptitude and resilience.

Our budding athletes have also been stunted in their development. Aside from Hong Kong’s success in the Tokyo Olympics – the bulk of the preparation for which took place before the pandemic – our athletes have paid a price in a lack of opportunity to compete at the highest level and pit their talent against their international peers.
This has been especially true for team sports, as anyone can see when considering Hong Kong’s truncated domestic football and rugby seasons. Developing athletes, not least the youngsters among them, have been unable to make progress in building their skills.
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