'Wet Markets May Have To Remain Shut For More Days'

An infectious disease expert said the two wet markets in Kowloon City district may need to close for more than two days depending on the test results and all people deemed as close contacts in those clusters should be quarantined for two weeks as a precaution.

Officials have shut the two markets in Hung Hom and To Kwa Wan after several people who contracted the coronavirus were linked to the facilities, specially to fish stalls there. Authorities suspended the markets for two days to disinfect the places.

Dr Leung Chi-chiu, the chairman of the Medical Association's advisory committee on communicable diseases, said that fish vendors in both wet markets should be tested first.

But he added that because the incubation period is quite long, it would be better to quarantine all close contacts identified in the two areas for 14 days to ensure they are Covid-free before allowing them to work so that the chain of transmission can be cut.

Leung told RTHK's Timmy Sung that regular shoppers at the wet markets don't need to be worried as it was unlikely that the spread of the virus was due to environmental contamination, but cross-infection between workers.

"The amount of contamination is unlikely to be really high, and the risk is mainly, if any, is mainly among those who regularly handle fish in their occupation, such as food handlers, workers in abattoirs, workers in fish stalls and those who are (regularly) handling all these cold products."

"The risk to the ordinary consumer should be very low, as long as we take care of our hand hygiene and cook the food well before we consume it," Leung said.

Leung also told an RTHK radio programme that the incident does not show that fish stalls are high risk, saying that markets are usually crowded places, and it would be quite easy for the virus to spread via human-to-human transmission.

HKU microbiologist, Yuen Kwok-yung, who visited the two markets on Tuesday, has also played down fears about safety of seafood and had hinted at the possibility of human-to-human transmission as a cause.