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Legislator Eunice Yung

2020-04-26
Hang in there!

When cases of atypical pneumonia first reported in Hong Kong in last December, HKSAR officials took notice and responded by activating a health response system.  The pathogen was subsequently identified as COVID-19.   In turn, HKSAR raised the response level to “serious.”  As a result, daily life in Hong Kong has changed dramatically in the past four months.  HKSAR cut off train and bus services between mainland China and blocked most border crossings.  Large businesses, schools, and play areas were shut.  Local residents were asked to maintain a social distance at least 1.5 meters apart, and strongly advised to work from home. Out of panic, people had once stockpiled rice as well as hoarded toilet paper.  As the ripple of COVID-19 careens around the globe, HKSAR moved swiftly to institute a short-term ban on tourists and quarantine all international resident arrivals.  Most importantly, gatherings of more than four are no longer allowed, excluding weddings and funerals.  A series of strict countermeasures to mitigate the COVID-19 have adversely impacted on the livelihood of the most of families in Hong Kong.

 

The adverse effect of COVID-19 on employment is gargantuan. Government officials warned that the outbreak of COVID-19 could result in an unemployment rate possibly jumping from 3.4 percent to 5 percent, being as nearly half as many more people out of work in coming months.  In recent survey conducted in February, the organization found that (i) 38 percent of 300 interviewees from low-income families were out of work due to the outbreak of COVID-19, (ii) 21 percent of them were asked to take unpaid leave, and (iii) 10 percent of them were forced to abandon their jobs because they had to deal with the closures of their kids’ school and other disruptions.  In all, the survey shows that more than 80 percent of the interviewees would face different sorts of financial hardship within three months due to the depletion of income. 

 

Despite the Government announced two rounds of economic stimulus package in the amount of $30 billion and $167.5 billion respectively aiming at shoring up distressed businesses and individuals, the relief package fails to cover casual workers, freelancers and the recent unemployed.  Furthermore, the anti-epidemic fund was specifically designed to be released to those who have joined the Mandatory Provident Fund pension scheme.  The Government shall find an effective way to address this oversight.

 

In broadening the Anti-epidemic relief measures, HKSAR also announced that there will be a reduction in the asset cap for applying for Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, but the scheme still comes with strict income and asset tests.  It is known that the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance was aimed to help the underprivileged class and not catered for those who were temporary out of job.  In this premises, the government has been repeatedly urged to provide cash subsidies to the unemployed since the latest round of fund relief measures failed to provide coverage for those who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

 

Even before the outbreak, Hong Kong was dealing with the effects of last year’s violent clashes between police and anti-government protesters as well as the US - China trade war.  People are suffering from loss of income and job cuts as the economy was sliding into recession, with hotels, restaurants, and stores suffering from a decline in visitors. In order to provide a substantial financial injection into a struggling economy with provisions aimed at helping local resident grappling with the economic disruption, HKSAR also decided to give each adult permanent resident HK$10,000 as part of Anti-epidemic fund.  The cash handout of HK$10,000 is considered to be ‘lifesaving’ and ‘emergency’ money for assisting those tragically affected by the economic decline.  In this connection, the most important issue boils down to a simple question: How to get the cash handout of HK$10,000 to individuals in need as quickly as possible?  Sadly, it is learnt that the registration of the cash handout can only be commenced in early July because the Government opined that the direct payment needs additional technical and legal work.  In other words, the cash handout of HK$10,000 to the adult permanent residents will be delayed by the Government’s bureaucratic procedures.  As a matter of fact, the Government cannot afford to such delay because any delay can create downstream snarls of people in the dire situations.  Therefore, the Government shall streamline the application process so that the cash handout could land in people’s hands as soon as possible.

 

In the education aspect of current situation, children are confined to their homes with the closures of schools.  In order to continuously provide education to school kids at home, many schools and teachers at all levels worked tirelessly to create online courses and deliver them through internet.  However, the digital inequality of accessing the internet is undoubtedly further exacerbating the wide learning gap between low-income and underprivileged students.   In this period of time, it highly suggests that all internet service providers should provide free internet to the underprivileged households where connectivity and access to hardware is limited so that all low-income students could continue their studies as their peers do.  Apart from that, the Government shall also make use of radio programming and broadcast television for bridging the students’ studies in the short term.

 

In the family standpoint, the frictions between parents and their children are increased with the stay-at home advice in place.  On the one hand, parents who have to work from home are experiencing high stress because they need to play additional role of part-time teachers for their children in the online learning classes.  On the other hand, parents who have to go to work are suffering with guilt because they have no choice but to leave their children at home alone which is a very dangerous practice to pursue.  During this difficult time, it’s important to have effective and active communication and clearly express feelings and concerns amongst family members.  Family with work-at-home parents could try to schedule between “work time” and “family time”,  and follow the schedule so as to engage each other in the family activities, whereas family with working parents must ensure children are being kept busy with necessary supervision from family members when they are working.  Moreover, to reduce any unwanted frictions among family members, the government should also instigate a contingent assistance scheme for those family with special needs, including strengthening caregiver relief supports, 24-hour online counselling services for family and so on.  In fact, NGOs and social workers are more than welcomed to play an active role assisting the parents in dealing with the stresses under the pandemic threats.

Having said that, I encourage the people of Hong Kong to look into the future positively. It’s very true that Hong Kong has bounced back from crises before.  Our city had weathered crisis in 2003 when the viral outbreak of SARS struck.  The memory and experience of SARS have guided our city’s reaction to COVID-19.  The public and HKSAR have taken health outbreaks very seriously and have adopted major behavioral changes.  Insofar as the implemented arrangements and measures concerned, they did strengthen everyone’s confidence in combatting the pandemic.  People from all walks of life have showed determination to joint effort to defeat this coronavirus.  Despite a current economic set back, we shall not spiral into economic depression.  The social distancing shall remind us of the value of sharing, caring and communicating with others.  Hopefully we will use this crisis to rebuild, produce something better and more humane.  Most importantly, the pandemic cannot sweep away our commitment to help each other, but we need to maintain the morale and the integrity to seek innovative solutions to address the issues of health and to rejuvenate the economy in the next few crucial years ahead — and beyond that.

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