HONG KONG: Hong Kong resident Yeung waited for 13 hours outside a hospital in the city’s eastern district in cold, rainy weather with his three-year-old daughter, who had a high fever, before they could be admitted for COVID-19 treatment.
By the time they could enter, her fever had gone down and she didn’t require medical attention.
Yet the 42-year-old utilities worker had to stay in the hospital for four nights without a bed, because he and his daughter were not allowed to leave. They were then sent to a government isolation centre for nine more days.
His biggest stress came not from becoming infected, but leaving his wife and 22-month-old, both with COVID-19, at home without any support.
“My wife suffered a lot. Her symptoms became more serious because of the hardship of taking care of the baby and no time to rest,” said Yeung, who declined to give his full name because of the sensitivity of the matter. “She said she would jump down the building if no one came back to support her.”
Yeung’s tale is one of many in the global financial hub, which has some of the world’s most stringent coronavirus regulations more than two years after the pandemic started.
Infections have surged to record highs with more than 500,000 infections and more than 2,500 deaths – most of which have been in the past two weeks.
The mental wear and tear for many of the city’s 7.4 million residents often comes not from getting the virus but from the policy and messaging from authorities, prompting panic and anxiety, health experts said. For instance, the Hong Kong government insisted for a time that infected children, no matter how young, must be kept in isolation.
“At the cost of keeping us safe physically … It seems perhaps they have lost sight of the humanity in it. For all these measures, there is this underlying fear,” said Dr Judy Blaine, wellbeing specialist at Hong Kong consultancy Odyssey.The burden falls more disproportionately on society’s most vulnerable, such as domestic helpers, migrant workers and low-income residents – many of whom live in tiny subdivided apartments with elderly parents and their children.