Hong Kong, once known as the freest economy on Earth, is now second only to Pakistan as the worst place to live during COVID-19.
Expected to report a record of more than 10,000 local COVID-19 cases yesterday, Hong Kong saw its ranking tumble to 52nd on Bloomberg’s COVID Resilience Ranking this month — the lowest position ever occupied by a developed economy since the measure began.
The low ranking came as a surge in cases of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 prompted Hong Kong, which ranked as high as ninth last year, to pile on strict social distancing measures on top of its isolationist policies.
Photo: AFP
The COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed international travel, as nations locked their borders and imposed other restrictions that are only now being dismantled in some parts of the world.
Asia is lagging, with China and Hong Kong almost completely walled off.
More than 10 percent of EU citizens living in Hong Kong have left the territory, EU Office to Hong Kong and Macao data showed.
This exodus happened over the past year or so, the daily Ming Pao reported yesterday.
The EU office has relayed concerns from expatriates and business community to the Hong Kong government around flight bans and travel restrictions, school closures, extended quarantine in government facilities and separation of children, it said in a statement Thursday.
“We have asked for a dialogue, transparency and an exit strategy as measures affect not only family life but also businesses,” it said, adding that the expatriate exit was triggered by COVID-19-related “measures and their unpredictability.”
With more than 1,600 companies, the EU has the largest non-Chinese business community in Hong Kong, the office said.
Meanwhile, the number of residents wanting to leave the territory has surged.
A net 21,698 people left Hong Kong last week, compared with a net inflow of 11,461 in the same week of last year, government data showed.
Of those who left, 72 percent departed through the airport, with the rest leaving via two land crossings with mainland China.
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