'Covid-19 Remarks Left Minorities Feeling Targeted'

An advocacy group for ethnic minorities said on Thursday that local officials have to be more culturally sensitive, after comments by health authorities on the coronavirus outbreak in Yau Tsim Mong earlier this week left some people feeling targeted.

More than 180 coronavirus infections have been confirmed in the district over the past two weeks.

At the government’s regular Covid-19 press briefing on Monday, a Centre for Health Protection official gave a range of potential reasons for the outbreak, but also attributed infections to what he said were the cultural and social habits of the area’s ethnic minority residents.

Hong Kong Unison’s executive director, Phyllis Cheung, said the remarks were somewhat discriminatory against ethnic minorities.

She said many ethnic minority residents have a high awareness of health precautions; she said many have been wearing masks, and had decided to cancel religious activities.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam this week sought to clarify that authorities didn’t mean to suggest that the spread of Covid-19 is related to race. But Cheung said the incident shows that some government officials need to improve their cultural sensitivity.

Meanwhile, a district councilor for Yau Tsim Mong, Frank Ho, said more and more ethnic minority residents have gone to take tests, after the government began providing more information in different languages.

But Ho said some residents are worried about the accuracy of the tests, after they heard of a case involving a Nepalese man who apparently twice tested negative for the virus before testing positive at a public hospital.

Ho said with more and more buildings coming under compulsory testing orders, it is important for coronavirus tests to be accurate.