IT is both too early and too late to write about the elections and our next president. Emotions on both the winning and losing sides seem to still be high, so I don’t wish to add to the cacophony and there aren’t any details yet on the new administration’s policies and appointments. In addition, I don’t want to write any post-mortems yet on what went right and wrong for the various campaigns. I was interviewed by the ANC last Tuesday on “Market Edge” and gave my views on the election and related matters. I am happy it has been viewed as of Wednesday over 300,000 times on YouTube. I thank ANC for inviting me and I hope viewers found my attempt to be factual and analytical worthwhile.

So, let’s discuss Covid, hopefully for the last time. For the first time in over a year, I did not read any Philippine coverage on Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Index. That is a good sign. By the way, we moved up slightly to 48 out of 53 and Hong Kong is last. I get the impression it has reached a breaking point there and changes are being made to open up and will continue as its competitiveness and attractiveness is now in question. It was one thing to be restrictive when most others were and before vaccines. Even to remain so when a few like Singapore were boldly experimenting with ways to prudently open up and take the lead on treating Covid as endemic. It became intolerable when they were the outlier with their zero Covid policy and made opening up to the mainland their first priority while the rest of the region and the Western world opened up in varying degrees. Many expats and some locals left the city with the latter knowing they might be gone for months, but they did not want to face the draconian measures the Hong Kong government imposed to deal with Omicron. More on that later.

Three categories

For the Western world and Asia there seems to be three broad categories to dealing with Covid. In many European countries it is if you are fully vaccinated, I don’t care anymore. They believe enough of their population is vaccinated and boosted and the new variants tend to have mild effects if you are vaccinated and get it so time to reopen and go back to where we were. Reviving the economy and fatigue with dealing with Covid means let’s see how it goes and err on the side of opening up and bringing things back. It also has the advantage of helping deal with supply bottlenecks and related matters. If you travel to most of Europe all you have to show is you are fully vaccinated. That’s it. Not just no quarantine, no PCR test, no antigen test and no testing on arrival.

Singapore which has been the leader in prudently opening up in Asia has done the same. No more need for a test before coming or upon arrival. Just be fully vaccinated. While cases remain, like many in the West, the data supports that for the fully vaccinated, except those in high-risk categories like the elderly and immunocompromised, the effects even if you get infected are minor and indeed like the flu. Thus, they have decided no need to be bureaucratic and cumbersome with testing and protocols of limited value but high inconvenience. So, no more tests for the fully vaccinated. Thailand is also moving in the same direction, as is Malaysia.

Middle way

The broad middle category is where the United States and the

Philippines are. Mostly, these countries have opened up but with some testing and protocols remaining. Vietnam, the Philippines and the United States require you to be fully vaccinated (unless you fall under an exception) and take either a PCR or antigen test prior to departure. In the case of the US, the day before departure for either a PCR or antigen. I have gone twice to the US since they adopted that and taken antigen tests. At least it is easy to get quick results for that. Happy the Philippines allowed that too but given our outgoing Task Force’s policy of monitoring and following rather than leading or finding its own way, I hope they follow Singapore and Thailand soon and also drop the need for a test if fully vaccinated. It was strange given the mix of rules in the US that on my way from Narita to New York on United Airlines, the crew said once the doors are closed, we will be following US FAA rules so while you are welcome to keep your masks on, they are no longer required. I took mine off, and it was a relief not to wear one for the nearly 13-hour flight. Don’t know if that was prudent but anyway did so. I will go to the gym in New York (if I continue to feel up to it after writing this column) and will probably still wear