No smartphone, no entry? Isolated by Covid-19 rules, Hong Kong’s elderly dread changes to ‘Leave Home Safe’ mobile app
- Thousands of seniors do not own a smartphone or are clueless about coping with pandemic digital checks
- Social workers warn elderly residents struggling to adapt to tech demands; seniors need help figuring out changes
Eighty-year-old Hongkonger Chan Yim-chun owns three phones – an old-school 3G flip phone, a smartphone and a specially designed mobile phone that connects to an emergency hotline.
But the mother of three, who lives alone in a subdivided unit in Sham Shui Po, said she only used the flip phone and had no idea how to use the internet.
“I cannot read what’s on the smartphone, and it just makes me feel clumsy and confused,” she said. “I need to rely on other people to help me with anything that involves the internet.”
Chan is not alone. Thousands of elderly people in Hong Kong either do not own a smartphone or are completely lost when it comes to using mobile applications critical for dealing with Covid-19 restrictions.
According to official data, more than one in four people aged 65 and above – or about 350,000 residents – do not have a smartphone.
With the government considering changes to the “Leave Home Safe” risk-exposure app and measures to check the Covid-19 status of people entering a wide range of public areas, social workers said they were concerned about the impact of such a move on the elderly population.
