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Chuang Shuk-kwan, who heads the infectious disease unit at the Center for Health Protection (CHP) said a 62-year-old seafood vendor became the 16th case of the virus in a cluster based at the Hung Hom market, and called on the public to be vigilant when receiving money. shopping change from the market, Thursday (6/8/2020).
According to The Standard, Chuang said environmental samples taken from the two infected wet markets were still being tested by the University of Hong Kong’s Yuen Kwok-yung microbiology team, but they had so far been negative.
“This is a good sign, meaning that the wet market disinfection has been effective. Of course, human-to-human transmission can occur between infected vendors. But we still can’t exclude the possibility of environmental contamination,” Chuang explained.
Infectious disease expert Ho Pak-leung from the University of Hong Kong said that so far 11 wet markets out of 73 markets managed by the Food and Hygiene Department had been implicated in the infection.
He advised vendors or sellers to accept payments electronically, to minimize the risk of direct contact in cash transactions with buyers.
And as the largest shareholder of Octopus cards, he added, the government should consider eliminating vendor installation fees to use Octopus, and monthly transaction payments to encourage electronic purchases.
Looking at the possible causes of the virus transmission, the president of the Hong Kong Seafood Trade Management, Lee Choi-wah, said customers have a habit of touching seafood products before they are purchased to check freshness, and that has the potential to transmit the virus.
