This sounds like a cautionary tale about what cities/policy-makers who refuse to start adapting to COVID will face in the coming months.
Admittedly, HK is likely the strictest place on the planet when it comes to virus containment, but nonetheless the obvious message would seem to be that we should be collectively moving on globally from containment and fully focus on adapting:
Quote:
With China exercising ever-tighter control over Hong Kong, the city is hewing to the country's strict "zero COVID" policy extolled by Beijing as evidence of a superior political system. Yet the approach has largely cut off Hong Kong from both China and the world — a severe blow for a place that built its success on global connections. Even more than recent political changes, the authorities' refusal to adapt to living with the virus is eroding Hong Kong's viability as an international city, according to almost two dozen diplomats, chambers of commerce, recruiters, pilots and other expatriates.
The resultant brain drain is altering the face of the financial hub, which some Western companies now consider a hardship post, as fewer people are willing to take the places of those leaving. The number of overseas professionals and investors admitted to Hong Kong under its general employment program dropped from about 41,000 in 2019 to 15,000 last year and 10,000 through the third quarter of 2021, immigration data shows. With quarantine rules unlikely to be lifted within the next year, departures of foreign businesspeople and other expatriates are set to accelerate.
|
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...ntine-omicron/