FEATURE: WELLNESS IN ADVERSITY
Coping With COVID Hong Kong’s third wave of COVID-19 forced many employees back to working from home. Here, we look at ways to relieve the pressure. – By Sarah Graham
B
y the time you read this, Hong Kong will hopefully be at the tail-end of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. That means you might still be working from home, manoeuvring between endless Zoom or Teams calls, home schooling your children, unable to travel… Seven months since the outbreak of coronavirus, and the world remains in limbo as governments attempt to balance the welfare of their citizens with economic recovery.
had, on occasion, brought the city to its knees. Very quickly, the stress related to the unrest was, for many, replaced with anxiety around the spread of the virus.
And amidst this chaos are billions of people trying to cope with an unprecedented catastrophe that many believe will change the world forever.
Well-known for its high-pressure living and working environment, Hong Kong felt the squeeze even more once the virus hit. Research conducted by mental health charity, Mind HK, revealed that 43% of Hongkongers noted a decline in their mental health during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic. For a culture that has traditionally remained silent on mental health issues, such a statistic conveys the gravity of the situation.
For Hong Kong, COVID-19 arrived at a time when the city’s coping mechanisms were already under pressure. More than six months of social unrest
Perhaps for the first time, employers have been forced to prioritise the health and wellbeing of their staff as they help them cope with the physical disconnection
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