Hotpot meal won't increase the risk of Covid infection, say health experts

Health experts on Thursday said having a hotpot meal at restaurants would not increase the risk of Covid infection through aerosol transmission.  

The comments came after a university student who tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday had dined at hotpot restaurant Nabe Urawa in Causeway Bay, the same period as a patient from the "birthday party" cluster.  

Speaking on a radio program this morning, government adviser Yuen Kwok-yung suggested that the student may not have contracted the virus through aerosol transmission.  

Yuen said the steam from the hotpot meal would not generate additional aerosol, and in fact, the air change rate at hotpot shops is much higher than in other restaurants.   

"The student must be in close range of the other patient in order to contract the virus," said Yuen.  

He said the two patients were seated far away from each other, which the transmission may have occurred through other channels, such as the sharing of the restaurant's tongs for getting food.  

Yuen's view was echoed by another government advisor David Hui Shu-cheong, who suggested that the steam from the hotpot may even kill the virus.  

Hui said the level of transmission risk is not based on whether people are having a hotpot meal, but the anti-pandemic measures at the restaurant, including its air circulation and distance between diners.  

Meanwhile, respiratory expert Leung Chi-chiu stressed that even though hotpot meals won't increase the risk of infection, it is best for people to avoid going to high-risk areas.  

On Wednesday, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection's communicable disease unit, said the 20-year-old University of Hong Kong student had dined at the Causeway Bay restaurant from 6.30pm to 8pm on January 4.  

During this time, an infected colleague of Celia Wong Sze-nga, the infected attendee at SAR-based mainland official Witman Hung Wai-man's birthday party, also dined at the restaurant, Chuang said. So, the student could have contracted the virus there.  

"They did not sit right next to each other," Chuang said. "There were some tables in between but not very far away. "We're concerned because we don't understand the source of the transmission in this setting,"  

Chuang said health officials are now conducting investigations at the restaurant, including checking its ventilation.  

She also appealed to diners who visited the restaurant on the evening of January 4 to get tested as soon as possible and to contact health authorities.  

The student lives in Pik Long House at Shek Pai Wan Estate in Aberdeen and was last at HKU in mid-December.