'Absurd To Allow Indoor Banquets But Not Camping'

The founder of a group that promotes hiking, conservation and wildlife in Hong Kong on Thursday called it absurd that camp sites in Hong Kong are still closed under anti-pandemic rules.

Martin Williams, from Hong Kong Outdoors, made the comment after DAB lawmaker Ben Chan called on Wednesday for the re-opening of camp sites after public barbecue pits were recently re-opened, as the government slowly eases Covid measures.

Speaking on RTHK’s Hong Kong Today, Williams criticised what he called a “mish mash” of pandemic policies, adding that it was “absurd” for the government to allow up to 240 people to attend a banquet, while not allowing access to outdoor campsites.

“There’s never been any scientific soundness, or commonsense to this,” he said.

Williams added that the closure of outdoor camp sites and barbecue pits were “an overreaction”, and showed a “great misunderstanding about Covid”.

“The sad thing then is the misunderstanding about Covid and the actual dangers with it, and the places like ventilation that we should have been focusing on," he said.

"It’s become a bit of a wrong target to aim at. Instead in all this time we should have improved ventilation indoors, we should have got air filtration, and we should have people fully knowledgeable that if you breathe fresh outdoor air, you’re not going to get Covid, or it’s extremely unlikely unless you’re in a dense crowd, and people don’t know.”