Ken Chu

Opinion | Lessons for Hong Kong from Shanghai’s lockdown: extraordinary times call for exceptional measures

To avoid a hard landing, Shanghai has implemented a two-step lockdown and kept vital public infrastructure and transport operational, including the stock exchange and airport

Flexibility and adaptability are key to ensuring the success of the ‘dynamic zero-Covid’ strategy; this is not the time to give up the fight

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

A police officer stands guard on the Bund with Pudong’s main financial district in the background in Shanghai on March 28. Photo: EPA-EFE

Ken Chu

Published: 9:15am, 1 Apr 2022

Many like to compare Hong Kong with Shanghai because the two cities share many similarities. But they also differ in a number of ways. Shanghai is, for instance, six times the size of Hong Kong, with more than three times as many people. Hong Kong is also more international in its lifestyle and outlook, with an estimated 10 per cent of its residents being foreigners, as opposed to less than 1 per cent in Shanghai.

But both are thriving modern metropolises and key financial hubs in China, boasting many multinational enterprises and foreign workers. It is often said that whatever one city does, the other does as well, rather like dancing in tandem.

Over the past two-plus years, both cities had also largely managed to keep kept their Covid-19 outbreaks under control – until recently that is. At the start of the year, Hong Kong suffered the grim impact of the Omicron wave, with more than 76,000 cases logged in a single day at its peak. This past week, Shanghai has also seen a resurgence in infections, with cases topping 4,400 in one day.

As with previous waves of infection, Hong Kong moved quickly to tighten social distancing measures, suspending face-to-face classes, capping the number of diners per table in restaurants, banning dining in after 6pm and shutting down numerous venues such as bars and gyms. But there was no citywide lockdown, as plans for universal testing were eventually put on hold.

On March 26, Shanghai health authorities said that there would be no citywide lockdown for mass Covid-19 testing. But, in a surprise U-turn the next day, they declared that a two-stage lockdown for mass testing would take place from March 28.

02:51

Shanghai imposes phased lockdowns as daily Covid infection numbers surge beyond 3,000

Given its similarities with Shanghai, could Hong Kong impose a similar phased lockdown for mass Covid-19 testing?