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Hong Kongers can finally stop wearing masks, indoors or out, from Wednesday morning, March 1. But after more than three years of universal and continuous masking to prevent covid-19 infections, customs are hard to lose.
With Florence de Changy, RFI Hong Kong correspondent
The first thing you notice on Wednesday morning when walking through the streets of Hong Kong was that a large number of people were still wearing their masks.” Yes, I know I have the right,” one man told RFI, “but today I’m going to put it back on to be safer.” 3Yes, it’s safer! Because I’m not sure there really aren’t more cases of Covid So I’m going to leave it a little longer to see if it has really disappeared and if so, it may stop doing it, “he adds.
The world record for mandatory mask
In fact, it is difficult to find a single person who is not wearing a mask on this street. “I am glad that the government has once again given people the choice: to wear the mask or not to wear it,” says a retiree.
Like the man who came home from the market with a bag of spinach, Hong Kongers are glad that things are back to normal.
Because Hong Kong has broken the world record for longevity in the use of masks – three years -, and now some scientists are concerned about the effects that the mask may have had, especially on the immune system, but also on young children who they have grown up in a world without faces for three years.
The measure affected all people over the age of two, who were exposed to fines of up to HK$10,000 ($1,275) if they failed to comply.
