In December 2019, Mainland authorities notified Hong Kong of an unknown strain of pneumonia detected in Wuhan. The city soon found itself catapulted into its most severe infectious disease crisis since the 2003 SARS epidemic. Looking back over history, Hong Kong people have been no strangers to epidemics. More than a hundred years ago, the city was gripped by the bubonic plague, then measles and tuberculosis in the 1950s and 1960s, the avian flu in the 1990s, followed by SARS in 2003.

Since the end of 2019, the COVID-19 epidemic has induced far-reaching effects on Hong Kong’s public health system, society and economy. The media’s coverage of the development of this pandemic has been an important testimony of history.

Hong Kong News-Expo has produced this exhibition to enhance public understanding of the pandemic’s impact on the community.