Tech for good: how Hong Kong’s innovative tech community rose to challenge amid Covid-19 crisis
- New, purpose-built clean room to produce medical-grade face masks built at Tai Po Industrial Estate
- Hong Kong Science Park’s Compathnion Technology works with government on app to monitor people undergoing 14-day Covid-19 quarantine
Crises are the times when people come together best, and the current Covid-19 pandemic has seen communities, companies and institutions cooperate like never before, with everyone pitching in with what they have.
The tech industry has risen to the challenge of this unprecedented global outbreak with admirable rapidity – identifying its strengths and skills while working with partners from the private and government sectors.
Technology has long been used to provide innovative solutions to social issues, and industry members from Hong Kong have been able to quickly provide answers to some of the most pressing problems created by the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, Covid-19.
Among the most immediate issues people have been facing is a shortage of necessities. Mindful of the risk of airborne contagion – and with the 2003 Sars outbreak still vivid in the minds of many – Hongkongers rushed to stock up on items such as medical face masks.
“With the current epidemic outbreak, we have seen the urgency and huge demand in society for the supply of face masks,” Simon Wong, chief project development officer of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), says.
