A magistrate described Paul Lui Po-lam as selfish, saying the offences took place during the fifth wave of Covid-19 and his actions could have caused the government’s anti-epidemic efforts to be in vain.
A Hong Kong man has been sentenced to 7.5 months behind bars, after he was found guilty of exposing other people to the risk of contracting Covid-19 by visiting restaurants and other public premises while he was infected.
Magistrate Li Chi-ho on Thursday jailed Paul Lui Po-lam for seven months and 15 days, after he was convicted of nine counts of exposing other people to the risk of infection in February last year, local media reported.
Lui was said to have been to restaurants and supermarkets in Sham Shui Po and Mong Kok and to have taken the MTR six times between February 24 and 28, 2022, despite knowing that he had been infected with Covid-19. Eateries he visited included Maxim’s MX and Yoshinoya.
It was revealed during Lui’s trial in January that police found the defendant shared a post in a Facebook group entitled “Hong Kong Yellow Economic Circle” on February 24. In the post, Lui mentioned that he had a sore throat and that he would visit more “blue shops.”
The colours yellow and blue have been widely used to identify opposing political factions in Hong Kong, particularly in the wake of the 2019 extradition bill protests. Yellow was associated with pro-democracy movements, while blue was affiliated with supporters of the government and the police.
In late February 2022, Hong Kong was gripped by the fifth and worst wave of Covid-19, with tens of thousands of daily confirmed cases involving the highly contagious Omicron variant. The number of daily infections and the death toll soared in March and the city’s Covid-19 death rate was at one stage the highest in the developed world.
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Covid-19: Hong Kong man sentenced to 7.5 months for exposing others to infection risks
