Hong Kong health minister Lo Chung-mau is in the hot seat - and his public appearances reveal how he plans to steer city out of pandemic

Flight suspensions are “soul destroying”. These are not the words of a frustrated traveller or a homesick Hongkonger, but from a sitting health minister of Hong Kong, a city that has become synonymous with harsh Covid-19 diktats.

When is zero Covid not zero? Again, not something one would expect to hear every day from the Hong Kong government. But when Lo Chung-mau, the new secretary for health, began talking, he breathed new meaning into an old term and proclaimed zero could be greater than nil, so long as the numbers were in reduction.