Page 1 of 2

Shanghai and Hong Kong took two very different paths in their zero-Covid approach. Still, the resulting similarities have been striking.

After originally planning to lock down the city of Shanghai in two phases – four days for the eastern side and four days for the western side – alongside mass testing, mainland China’s largest financial hub has extended restrictions for parts of the eastern side after infection cases rose rapidly.

The draconian measures have sent Shanghai into a tailspin with widespread dissatisfaction from both local residents and the business community, leading authorities to make a rare admission of their poor handling of the lockdown.

In contrast, fellow Chinese hub Hong Kong also attempted to pursue a similar policy of lockdowns and mass testing. While the semi-autonomous city took a very different path in this pursuit, ultimately reversing on a number of plans, the similarities have been striking.

Unclear Communication

Just one week before rolling out the Shanghai lockdown last Monday at 5am, Chinese authorities repeatedly ruled out the possibility of implementing such measures, catching many in the city off-guard.

Similarly, Hong Kong also delivered unclear communication with authorities changing their tone in a matter of weeks. On February 8, the city’s chief executive Carrie Lam said that the government did not choose to implement mass testing due to «finite» health resources but on February 22, she announced the compulsory universal testing scheme.

Also on February 22, Lam said that the government had no plans for a citywide lockdown as it would be «very difficult to implement» but less than one week later, her administration’s health mister Sophia Chan said that the government had not ruled out a lockdown. Further adding to the confusion, local media reports claimed that a 9-day lockdown would be rolled out starting on March 17, citing sources close to the government. 

Supply Access

Although Hong Kong ultimately did not seal the city, even the signaling of a potential lockdown sent its residents panicking with supermarket shelves quickly emptying due to fears of supply shortages. Vegetable prices were a notable casualty with a temporary surge in prices after authorities curbed cross-border delivery from mainland China due to positive cases from infected truckers.

In addition to pre-lockdown stockpiling, Shanghai felt the pain of ill-prepared restrictions with numerous residents reportedly failing to get a hold of key supplies such as food or medicine.

According to a «Bloomberg» report, there have been Chinese social media posts of such difficulties with one featuring a video of a dozen residents protesting behind the gates of a sealed housing estate. In another social media post from the report, an elderly person allegedly died from asthma after an ambulance refused to take him to a hospital in Shanghai and the post has attracted 55 million views last Thursday alone.

Lacking Childcare