Better To Cancel The Book Fair, Says Health Expert

An infectious disease expert has said it would be best to cancel this year's book fair – scheduled to start next week – in order to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

Professor David Hui from the Chinese University said that because a number of recently confirmed local Covid-19 cases have an unknown source of transmission, the government should consider re-implementing some of the epidemic prevention measures introduced during the peak of the second wave in March.

But Health Secretary Sophia Chan played down the risk of holding the book fair during an appearance on RTHK's Millennium programme.

Chan said most of the recently-confirmed cases involved people not wearing masks, and said organisers would be asking all visitors and exhibitors to wear masks.

Speaking on the same programme in a separate segment later on Friday, Hui said it would not be ideal to hold the book fair this year, but if the government decides to go ahead as scheduled, then the number of visitors must be controlled and everyone must be required to wear masks.

Organisers of the book fair, which starts on July 15 and end on July 21, announced last month that they'll put in extra safety measures like asking visitors to cleanse their hands after they flick through books, require guests to wear face masks, and offer promotions for people who visit the fair at night as organisers try to keep guests spaced out.

Hui also reminded taxi drivers to clean their vehicles regularly and use hand sanitizer when getting in and out of their cars, after a few taxi drivers were confirmed to be among the newly-confirmed cases in the past few days.