Hong Kong Says Covid Zero Critics Won’t Be Locked Up in Prison

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong denied that criticism of the city's strict policy to push for zero Covid-19 cases is illegal under a sweeping national security law that has silenced dissent in the former British colony.

“Making general remarks and discussion is not illegal,” a government spokesman said in a statement Sunday, adding that the strategy was “the most effective way to fight against the epidemic and protect public health and safety.”

The national security law, imposed by Beijing in June 2020, has since been used to target opposition lawmakers, journalists and activists who opposed the city's government. The content covered under the law is unclear, with certain political slogans banned after its implementation.

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Hong Kong and mainland China are both committed to policies aimed at eliminating Covid as the rest of the world transitions to some form of living with the virus. Once one of Asia's most connected financial hubs, Hong Kong has imposed hotel quarantines as long as 21 days for vaccinated residents arriving in the city and ordered healthy people who've had fleeting contact with an infected person to isolate for long spells.

That approach has been tested in recent weeks by local transmission of the omicron variant, which has pushed quarantine facilities to the breaking point and seen thousands of residents locked down in their apartments for as long as seven days.

Separately, some medical experts in the city including Siddharth Sridhar, a clinical assistant professor at Hong Kong University's Department of Microbiology, are now calling on Chief Executive Carrie Lam's government to transition to living with the virus, the South China Morning Post reported Monday.

“Covid is not going to go anywhere,” Sridhar told the newspaper. “We are in a better position to consider opening up than we were at any point earlier in the pandemic, so 2022 is actually a good opportunity to do so.”

Lam has previously said the city must get to a 90% vaccination rate before relaxing measures. Currently, only 79% of the city's population has received their first dose.