The negative-pressure CLeanTech booths will douse passengers in disinfectant while checking for signs of fever

Hong Kong International Airport is trialling negative pressure spray-booths to hose passengers down with disinfectant as part of its pandemic action plan.

The CLeanTech booths, from AEGIS Intelligent, will run passengers through a 40-second disinfection routine which, the airport says, use “antimicrobial coating which can remotely kill virus and bacteria on human bodies and clothing, using the technologies of photocatalyst and nano needles.”

Nano-needles are used to protect often-touched surfaces – lift buttons, for example – from viruses and bacteria but it’s not clear how such technology contributes to cleaning the occupant of a CLeanTech booth. However, the system also douses the occupant with sanitiser for disinfection purposes, an airport spokesman says. The booth runs at negative pressure to prevent cross-contamination.

According to the spokesman, the system is presently being trialled on staff, with plans to roll it out for passengers later.

An airport worker was one of the last locally acquired cases in Hong Kong, diagnosed with Covid-19 on 18 April. The 47-year-old ground attendant for Virgin Atlantic had served flight passengers arriving from the UK, according to the Centre for Health Protection’s head of communicable disease branch Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan.

Meanwhile AsiaWorld-Expo says it plans to use similar booths for trade shows, drawing on the government’s HK$1 billion subsidy for the conference and exhibition industry to fund the technology. The version planned by AsiaWorld-Expo will take just 12 seconds to disinfect an exhibition-goer and their belongings, says the company, which plans to deploy the devices at entrances to upcoming trade exhibitions and conventions.