Despite major public concern about severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the eye-catching biennial event, which will be the biggest so far, is ready to offer a safe environment for its up to 400,000 expected visitors to get a close encounter with the latest technologies and achievements in the global auto industry.

"We have taken whatever necessary measures, at any cost, to make visitors assured... it's a must right now," said Chen Xianjin, vice-president of Shanghai Council for the Promotion of International Trade, one of the exhibition's organizers.

A special team of the involved parties has been set up to handle SARS prevention matters, Chen said.

A major approach is to effectively control the spectators' flow to avoid a big flock of people intensively clustering at the biggest-ever auto extravaganza that runs until April 27, according to Chen.

To achieve that, visitors are expected to strictly abide by the allowed entry time span on their tickets on a daily basis, which is different from the comparatively looser control of the visitor flow in the past.

Meanwhile, those ticket booths on the site will be well co-ordinated with organizers' close observation in order to ensure the orderly and smooth entry of visitors, who will also be guided to get scattered around the nine exhibition halls with a total area of over 80,000 square metres.

Also, timely disinfection will be carried out at the event, Chen said.

Besides daily morning overall disinfection of the exhibition halls before opening, all those public facilities involved like automatic teller machines (ATM), computer information touch screens, public telephones, handrails and shuttle buses will be disinfected after the exhibition closes every day, and toilets at the site will undergo disinfection in particular - three times a day - and be equipped with special hand-washers.

Good ventilation will hopefully be ensured as organizers have decided to keep the 12 doors of each hall open during each day's exhibition time, and special ventilation fans in the halls, usually for fire-fighting purposes, will also be in around-the-clock use during the auto show.

While visitors will immediately see clear and basic guidances on self-protection against SARS on a bulletin board upon their entry into the exhibition halls, a special medical centre has been set up, providing mouth masks, disinfectant tissues and other related services for those in need, Chen said.

(China Daily April 21, 2003)