The UK should follow Hong Kong’s lead in controlling coronavirus and sending people back to the office

It would be a fundamental mistake not to draw on the strategies used in Asia to tackle Covid-19, and businesses will fail if the government continues down the wrong path, writes James Foster

Workers have returned to Hong Kong offices during the pandemic (Getty Images)

Boris Johnson has once again sent office workers home, to the detriment of productivity and the countless thousands of businesses that rely on their footfall. Yet, where I am working in Hong Kong, we’ve been operating in offices for the past two months, safely and with little incident.

The UK could soon see industries collapsing one after another, while it’s business as usual in many parts of Asia.

Why? While Asian governments have taken decisive, proven steps to eradicate the virus, the UK has dithered and delayed.