【明報專訊】A confirmed case of COVID-19 infection in Liwan District of Guangzhou has triggered a controversy surrounding the suspension mechanism for the Return2HK scheme. It was not until last night (May 24) that the Hong Kong government finally announced that the virus-ridden micro-district, where a case is located, rather than the entire province, will be used as the unit for determining the scope of the suspension mechanism for quarantine-free entry to Hong Kong. Late last year, the government came up with the idea of ''fighting the pandemic with precision'', trying to avoid imposing a blanket anti-pandemic measure rigidly on all sides. But the latest row shows that the authorities' actions are not consistent with this principle. The mainland has battled the pandemic with ferocious efficiency. Even when sporadic cases come up, the spread can be eradicated swiftly. In fact, the mainland's ability to basically maintain ''zero cases'' was the precondition for implementing the Return2HK scheme. The mainland has long abandoned the method of locking down an entire city for pandemic control. Rather, the precise approach of controlling the pandemic by locking down only the micro-district concerned has worked effectively. However, the suspension of the Return2HK scheme was applied to a whole province because of only one single case. From an anti-pandemic perspective, there are no reasons that the suspension mechanism for Return2HK should be stricter than those for travel bubble arrangements or flights. It is necessary for the Hong Kong government to enhance communication with the mainland and formulate a more reasonable suspension mechanism to guard against the import of the disease to avoid any more U-turns or confusion regarding information dissemination.