I Saw Firsthand What It Takes to Keep Covid out of Hong Kong. It Felt like a Different Planet

In her first-person account “I Saw Firsthand What It Takes to Keep COVID out of Hong Kong. It Felt Like a Different Planet,” reporter Caroline Chen documents her experience of quarantining in the Crowne Plaza hotel for 21 days upon arriving in Hong Kong from California, undergoing repeated COVID tests while having minimal human contact. Her observations illustrate what makes Hong Kong’s quarantine measures “among the strictest in the world” (Chen). One such measure is detailed in her booklet of quarantine instructions, “‘Warning: Leaving the room will be treated as breaching of the quarantine order. Offenders will be referred to the police without warning. Breaching the quarantine order is a criminal offence and offenders are subject to a maximum fine of HK $25,000 and imprisonment for six months’” (qtd. in Chen).

On one hand, she expresses her concern about the unsustainability of these stringent regulations, stating, “Experts have said that the zero-infection policy is unsustainable, and it is fair to be concerned about the impact to the city’s reputation as an international commerce hub” (Chen). However, she admits that the measures contribute significantly to the city’s successful containment of COVID-19. “Whether or not the strict measures are ideal, the result is undeniable: When I finally departed my hotel, there were zero cases of COVID-19 in the city,” Chen observes.

She also praises the shared community responsibility that Hong Kong citizens took to protect themselves and others from COVID-19, as she states, “The community-minded and prevention-oriented attitude of Hong Kong citizens is one that Americans could benefit from” (Chen) and appreciates the peace of mind that these preventative measures bring to her and especially vulnerable populations. “I celebrated Christmas with my extended family: more than 20 of us together, from my grandmother and my cousin’s infant children, and we were spared fraught discussions of testing and exposure and risk reduction that so many U.S. families wrestled with this year,” Chen writes.

Chen’s account describes hotel quarantine procedures in Hong Kong, a rare practice in other countries even during the pandemic and weighs the inconveniences to herself against its objective contributions to public health. Hers is a narrative that shows support for strict quarantine measures, and she argues for the effectiveness of quarantine policy not from a medical, theoretical perspective, a perspective commonly used by health authorities to justify lockdown or quarantine procedures to the public, but from the position of a regular citizen and her personal observations of COVID-19 policy in HK and the US. This account provides a window into HK culture which prioritizes collective safety and responsibility over individual comforts, and Chen’s opinions serve as an example of the mentality that informs this culture.