Populism should not guide our virus strategy: Yau

A lack of public confidence has complicated efforts to fight the coronavirus outbreak here. Photo: RTHK

The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Edward Yau, said on Sunday the government should not handle the Covid-19 outbreak by focusing on populist sentiment in society.



At the onset of the outbreak here, Hong Kong was hit by panic-buying which has since eased. Yau said people's panic was understandable because of their fears, but that attempts to deal with the outbreak should be based on science, rather than rumours or speculation.



On the shortage of face masks, the commerce chief insisted the government had been making efforts to purchase and manufacture masks.



Yau painted a grim outlook for the local economy, saying it's unlikely to rebound in the first quarter of the year.



He said economic prospects were being affected by factors such as the China-US trade war, anti-government protests and the coronavirus outbreak. He spoke about the possibility of the virus being transmitted to Hong Kong from overseas, after it had spread from Asia. Yau said all these factors would affect local GDP growth in the next one to two years.