Coronavirus: online rumours claiming cold wind could carry disease to Hong Kong from Wuhan ‘totally groundless’, says top meteorologist
- Former Hong Kong Observatory director Lam Chiu-ying says claims made online have no basis
- Mercury drops to 10.6 degrees Celsius in Tsim Sha Tsui on Sunday evening, the lowest so far this year
A meteorologist has debunked an online rumour that cold winds buffeting Hong Kong could carry the coronavirus to the city from mainland China, where it originated.
Messages spread online as a cold front coming down from Guangdong province was expected to lower temperatures this week, with the mercury dropping to 10.6 degrees Celsius at the Hong Kong Observatory in Tsim Sha Tsui on Sunday evening, the lowest so far this year. At Tai Mo Shan, the mercury hit 2.4 degrees.
Circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp, they said the cold wind would bring the virus from the epicentre in Hubei province some 900km away to the south of the country, including Hong Kong.
It also claimed the air in the provincial capital of Wuhan and its nearby cities were filled with smoke containing the virus because of the cremation of nearly a thousand people killed by Covid-19, the disease caused by the pathogen.
The message asked Hongkongers to close their windows and stay at home with masks on until next Tuesday, when the cold air should have passed.