Covid-19 Upsurge Casts Pall Over HK Book Fair

The Book Fair's organiser, the Trade Development Council (TDC), said on Sunday that it's too early to say if the event will go ahead next month, amid concerns that the city may be seeing its fourth wave of Covid-19.

The fair was previously postponed from July to mid-December - when the SAR was in the throes of a third wave of the coronavirus.

It's been taking place since 1990 and attracts hundreds of thousands of people to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre every year.

Benjamin Chau, the council's deputy executive director, says more than 600 exhibitors have signed up for the event slated for December 16-22.

But he says the recent rise in local infections and the tightening of social distancing measures have increased uncertainty over the event.

"Tomorrow we are going to have a meeting with all the supporting organisations ...to decide the way forward for the Book Fair," Chau said, noting that the fair is backed by nine major publishing associations.

The TDC said in August it would be carrying out an assessment in November on whether the fair should proceed. It said at the time that a final decision would be made on December 9, a week before the scheduled opening.

Chau said if the the physical event does not happen, the TDC will scale up its online Book Fair which has been showcasing 110,000 books since August.

He added that the TDC has also turned exhibitions into digital ones, with a viewership of over 4.2 million - a 20 percent increase from physical ones in the past, which he said showed a strong market demand despite the epidemic.