Avoid non-essential travel: CHP

March 11, 2020

Centre for Health Protection Controller Dr Wong Ka-hing:
On travel, the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health has appealed to the public to consider delaying all non-essential travel. That’s the appeal we made last week. I think it still holds. 
It is quite clear that the global situation of this new epidemic has been changing very rapidly and it has been worsening quite a lot in a few European countries, even for those countries which have reported relatively few cases. 
For example, in India and also lately in Egypt, only dozens of cases were reported according to their official information. We have, unfortunately since last week, a few imported cases from India and now from Egypt with a very high attack rate. It’s changing so regularly that I think nobody can predict which will be the next country to have an outbreak or even an explosive outbreak.

(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Centre for Health Protection today appealed to the public to avoid all non-essential travel amid the global spread of COVID-19.

Centre for Health Protection Controller Dr Wong Ka-hing made the appeal at a press briefing and explained that with more coronavirus outbreaks around the world, travellers are more at risk of catching the disease.

“On travel, the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health has appealed to the public to consider delaying all non-essential travel. That’s the appeal we made last week. I think it still holds.

“It is quite clear that the global situation of this new epidemic has been changing very rapidly and it has been worsening quite a lot in a few European countries, even for those countries which have reported relatively few cases.

“For example in India and also lately in Egypt, only dozens of cases were reported according to their official information.”

Dr Wong warned that it is safer to delay non-essential travel because the global COVID-19 situation is unpredictable.

"We have, unfortunately since last week, a few imported cases from India and now from Egypt with a very high attack rate. It’s changing so regularly that I think nobody can predict which will be the next country to have an outbreak or even an explosive outbreak."