To fight Covid, Hong Kong shut schools and businesses, nearly sealed its borders for two years, banned more than two people from gathering and quarantined whole buildings, Reuters reports.

Still the draconian restrictions were unable to contain the coronavirus, and with more than 8,600 deaths of mostly elderly, unvaccinated people, many just in the past two months, Hong Kong's citizens are reckoning with the costs of some of the world's most stringent social distancing rules on their mental health and livelihoods.

Empty streets in the financial centre, shuttered restaurants and bars, and bare supermarket shelves are a testament to the disruptions Hong Kong's Covid-19 rules wrought on its people.

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