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Together we fight the virus

With the support from all sectors and the stringent social distancing measures implemented over the last month, the number of daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 has been kept under 30 for more than ten consecutive days, showing that the epidemic is being brought under control gradually. The recent relaxation in some of the measures, including the restriction on evening dine-in services by restaurants, has immediately boosted the business of many restaurants. This is one big step for the catering sector which has been operating under tremendous pressure since the outbreak. If people's travel, social activities and consumption can resume stably, it could provide the most solid support to different business sectors and the overall economy.

Nonetheless, the number of daily new cases still seesawed in recently days from about 10 to 20 cases per day, amongst which more than 30% could not be traced back to a known source of infection. This reflects the challenges brought by the hidden chains of infection in the community to our anti-epidemic work, posing threat to the resumption of people's travel and economic activities. Only by breaking these hidden chains, we could effectively protect our own health and the health of our families, and resume our normal daily lives.

The Universal Community Testing Programme (the Programme), which will commence on the coming Tuesday, is meant to serve this purpose. By identifying asymptomatic infected persons in the community and providing them with suitable medical treatment, we can protect their health and avoid the spreading to their families and friends, with a view to breaking the hidden chains of infection in the community.

Some people may be reluctant to join the Programme for different reasons. But if we give a deeper thought, it will be a suffering to us all if the chains of infection could not be broken and new infection cases persist, as we may have to stay at home for a long period of time for epidemic control purpose as a result. In addition to the inconvenience caused to daily lives, this would also weaken our economy and lead to reduction in income, or even affect our mental health.

If the trend of having about 10 to 20 daily new cases continues, there will be hundreds of people getting infected every ten days, and their close contacts with risk of infection will be even more, putting many families under pressure. While there are speculations on the cost-effectiveness of the Programme, for the sake of people's health and our economy, we should support any measures that could break the hidden chains of infection and stabilise the economy at the same time.

The political team of the Government will take the test this week. I would like to appeal to enterprises and chambers of commerce to make flexible working arrangement to facilitate their staff to take part in the Programme, so as to protect the health of their staff and clients.

Lifting the restrictions on evening dine-in services by restaurants, as well as allowing the resumption of operation for some previously affected premises, are our first step in resuming social and economic activities. Once we can break the hidden chains of infection, and continue to curb the epidemic and maintain good hygiene together, people's daily lives and the operation of businesses could be resumed to the largest extent, facilitating Hong Kong's economic recovery.

During this testing time, the Government has rolled out a series of measures and polices to support different sectors. With the supporting measures implemented under the two rounds of the Anti-Epidemic Fund and the Budget, the estimated deficit in 2020/21 would likely increase to about HK$ 290 billion. The fiscal reserve is expected to drop drastically from some HK$1,100 billion in end March to about HK$800 billion, equivalent to about 13-month of the Government's expenditure. This level of fiscal reserve is very close to that in 2003 after the SARS epidemic, which was equivalent to about 12-month of the Government's expenditure. In order to maintain sound public finances as well as the market's confidence, it is obvious that the continuous surge in the expenditure could not be sustained. On one hand, we need to reserve our strength in coping with the financial requirements brought by any possible resurgence and outbreak in winter . On the other hand, when our economy was last hit by the Asian Financial Crisis and other events, a quick V-shape recovery was shown as a result of the support measures by the Central Government and the good economic performance of our major trading partners at the time. Whereas for now, given the worsening global economy under the pandemic and the growing China-US tensions, the world economic outlook is gloomy and highly uncertain. We have to equip ourselves with sufficient resources and fiscal reserve to face the possible challenges ahead and maintain financial stability. Therefore, as we are entering a new phase in the pandemic in which we have to co-exist with the COVID-19 under the "new normal", our support measures in future should be rationalised and adjusted suitably to ensure the public money are used effectively with a focus on those in need.

Controlling the epidemic and supporting the economy have to be the dual targets of the Government's policy. With a multi-pronged approach to address the epidemic, economic needs as well as people's stress, we could unite together to fight against the virus and enable the sustainable development of our economy. Although the Programme is not flawless, it is the best we can arrange with our enhanced capability under the support of the Central Government. By breaking the hidden chains of infection proactively, we can focus our future work on the prevention of resurgence and resumption of economic activities, so as to safeguard people's livelihoods and income. Only if the epidemic is subsided, we would be able to resume the travel between Hong Kong and the Mainland plus Macao for a stronger push to economic recovery, and facilitate travel to other places under the arrangement of "travel bubbles".

Let us join hands to win this battle against the epidemic, and to save the economy and our livelihoods.

August 30, 2020