Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Tuesday the special administrative region government will launch the third round of the Anti-Epidemic Fund for local businesses to keep as many people employed as possible.
The new round of the pledged spending is expected to secure jobs, especially those in the industries hard hit by the pandemic. As supermarkets generally saw sales remain the same or did even a little bit better in the past few months, the two leading supermarket chains, which between them claim more than 70 percent of that market share, are required to offer discounts to the public and cash coupons in return for receiving wage subsidies.
Meanwhile, social-distancing measures have to be extended in response to the lingering third wave of COVID-19 infections in Hong Kong, which makes it increasingly difficult for the city to pursue an economic recovery in the foreseeable future.
The SAR government announced that the employers will get wage subsidies through the Employment Support Scheme by mid-September. The first round of relief measures under the program has successfully prevented some 1.9 million employees from being laid off by their cash-strapped bosses — a tangible benefit that local residents, especially the grassroots, applauded during the pandemic. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread around the world, Hong Kong, a hub of international trade and transportation, will never be less than vigilant in its fight to contain the spread of the virus. The daily number of confirmed infections has been fluctuating in double digits since falling below 100 two weeks ago. Many of them were linked to the Kwai Chung port area, indicating that the influx of goods and the contact with visitors have been posing a risk of coronavirus infections that the city must cope with properly.
It is no secret the city cannot survive without imported food and other daily necessities. That is why it has not issued a complete lockdown despite surges in COVID-19 infections by imported pathogens. Although cross-border personnel travel has been limited for months, it is simply inconceivable to stop receiving shipments from overseas, particularly food and hygiene products.
Since the SAR government is already set to conduct citywide, universal nucleic acid testing and introduce an individual health code (as a smartphone app), which has proved effective in controlling outbreaks on the mainland, there is no doubt that higher-risk professions and communities should be the first to be tested.
Those enterprises need government support to maintain effective protection for their employees in direct contact with imported goods on a daily basis, and that is why the third round of the Anti-Epidemic Fund is absolutely necessary, and more will be needed in the near future. Apart from testing of higher-risk professions and contact tracing, it is also necessary to clamp down on non-essential social gatherings, including but not limited to public protests and rallies, which are hazardous even if participants wear masks and keep a distance from one another.
