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Returning to Hong Kong after the horror of Sars
I'm an expat mother, based in Hong Kong. At the height of the Sars outbreak, I took my children to Sydney. We donned masks for the flight, and quarantined ourselves for the recommended ten days when we got there. Now, six months later, we're back. The arrivals procedure included being screened for fever by thermal imaging cameras and filling out health declaration forms. But the airport was busy, and nobody was wearing a mask. Had Hong Kong returned to normal?
Well, yes and no. People are still twitchy about Sars. A recent headline in the South China Morning Post ran: "Hospital seals off ward after flu-like outbreak. Twenty-four patients were being held in isolation at a public hospital where seven members of staff had gone down with Sars-like symptoms."
Thankfully, this was a false alarm, but there is concern that Sars will recur. People are now much more focused on hygiene than they were pre-Sars. Few ignore the government's advice on personal hygiene: wash your hands frequently, and always before meals; avoid sharing utensils at mealtimes; cover your nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing; avoid sharing towels; and contact a doctor promptly if you are feeling unwell.
Concern for health and hygiene is particularly evident in schools. At the height of the outbreak, pupils had to pass daily temperature checks, and school cleaning procedures were overhauled. Eventually the government ordered all schools to close.
At the start of the new academic year, schools were reminded to maintain a hygienic environment. Government advice was that schools should clean and disinfect premises daily, maintain good ventilation, and provide adequate facilities and cleaning materials for hand-washing - prior to the outbreak soap and toilet tissue were not always to be found in the washrooms of local schools.
Parents too, have been asked to stay alert. The government recommends we continue to check our children's temperatures daily, and keep a temperature record sheet. Schools are also encouraging us to act responsibly.
Ben Frankel, chairman of the board at Hong Kong Academy Primary School, which serves both the local and the expat communities, explained that his staff were now taking an aggressive stance: "We have a no tolerance policy regarding cold symptoms and fever. Parents are responding to this.
"Where once they might have sent their children to school with sniffles, now they don't. If a student has a fever, or is not feeling well, his or her parents are asked to seek medical advice, and keep their child at home."
Beyond education, health is now at the top of the general political agenda. Hong Kong was previously filthy. Post-Sars, the government seems determined to improve public health and environmental hygiene.
This is not just a matter of maintaining vigilance at airport and border crossings. A substantial amount of money, $HK1.3 billion ($100 million), has been earmarked for public health projects, there are plans to set up a centre for disease control and there is now official hostility towards common public health problems, such as spitting. Legislative changes have also been introduced, to strengthen the enforcement of hygiene laws.
Post-Sars, the health of Hong Kong's economy is worrying. It has been shaky for the past few years, and Sars worsened the pain. Tourism, service industries, retail and catering, were all particularly badly hit in the epidemic; many shops and restaurants closed over the summer, and hotel occupancy rates plummeted. Now property values are crashing, unemployment has risen to record levels, deflation is rampant, wages are falling, and there is talk of a tax hike to balance the books - either that, or freeing the Hong Kong dollar from its peg to the US dollar.
The government claims the worst of the downturn is over, and that we are now seeing the beginning of a recovery. In a recent address to the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, Financial Secretary Henry Tang said: "I am cautiously optimistic we have turned the corner."
There are some positive signs. Immediately post-Sars Hong Kong's GDP was forecast to grow by 1.5 per cent this year, compared to a pre-Sars forecast of three per cent. This has now been revised upward to two per cent.
Exports remain robust, and the Hang Seng Index is rallying. Numbers of visitors from Mainland China are soaring, and international visitors are starting to return - Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong-based airline, cut its flight schedule during Sars, but it will operate a full service from late September.
Despite the good news, many businessmen remain cautious. A growth in GDP of two per cent is, after all, not spectacular. There is anxiety about what will happen if Sars recurs.
"If Sars does return," says one businessman, who did not wish to be named, "Hong Kong risks being demoted from a regional centre to a local office. This would result in significant resources being reallocated from Hong Kong to other regional centres."
A recent editorial in the South China Morning Post pointed out that although the economy feels better, there remains much to be done, and warned that the Financial Secretary "cannot afford to sit back and hope recovery can be achieved on auto-pilot".
Expats would surely agree - many have recently lost their jobs. Expat communities are always in flux - people come, people go - this summer, in Hong Kong, they have mostly gone. Quite apart from forced departures, many made the decision to leave for good, during or immediately after, the Sars outbreak.
Ben Frankel, whose school lost many pupils, thinks the main effect of Sars on the expat community was the way it focused, and accelerated, the natural cycle of coming and going: "Sars overcame all inertia. All changes were made, all at once. Individuals who had doubts about being here all left, all together. Companies which had been evaluating options on staffing, lay-offs and decentralisation all made decisions, all together, all at once."
Frankel thinks the result of this could be positive: "We've cleaned house. Now there should be greater stability. The people who are still here are here to stay."
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