BASELWORLD announcement regarding New Proposals from the Swiss Federal Council and the Federal Health Office

Following the Swiss Federal Council and the Federal Health Office reconsideration of the directive issued on April 1, 2003 to minimalise the international risk of spreading the SARS virus, a new proposal was issued to the BASELWORLD Management at noon today (April 3, 2003).
This proposal, if implemented, would replace the directive of 1 April, 2003. The precautionary measures contained within the proposal, for which the BASELWORLD Management would be responsible to put in place for all involved personnel from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam (in both Zurich and Basel) included the following:
• A full daily health check by a qualified medical practitioner before entering the Show sites
• Daily certification of having passed the required medical inspection to be worn by each individual
• Masks to be worn and changed every four hours whilst on the Show locations
• Daily disinfection of all stand display items and products
• All instructions to be communicated in the individual's mother tongue
The relevant Swiss Cantons would be required to ensure that these measures were fully carried out by the Show Management.
These new measures would involve screening a minimum of 5,000 people in the two locations and, even if implemented in full, would be under constant review by the Swiss Federal Council and the Federal Health Office, in line with international developments of SARS.
The Management of the Show, after long discussion on the practicality and feasibility of implementing these measures, have announced that they have been forced to maintain the standards defined in the original directive of 1 April, 2003, due to the impossibility of fulfilling the necessary requirements outlined in the new proposal.
"We have looked at every possible way of carrying out these new instructions and have realised that the level of responsibility to organise and ensure that these measures are correctly applied, are totally unrealistic and impractical. Even if it had been possible to find the health and medical resources required, the earliest possible date by which this could have been put in place would have been Sunday 6 April, 2003.
We realise that this decision has a massive impact on the exhibitors and personnel concerned, for which we deeply regret, but we have no other choice," commented RenÉ Kamm, CEO of MCH Swiss Exhibition Ltd, today.

Source: BASELWORLD press release
April 2003