The Korean Society of Hypertension (KSH) said its members would meet at Bexco, Busan, for two days on Friday and Saturday, under strict quarantine measures against Covid-19.

The society said it would provide QR codes, transparent desk shields, and online exhibition booths for participants to safely attend Hypertension Busan 2020, its 52nd spring international conference. QR codes are used for epidemiological tracking in case of a confirmed case of Covid-19, and transparent shields protect people from droplets of others.

The society had initially scheduled the event for May 15-16 but delayed it due to worries over the spread of Covid-19.

QR codes and unmanned kiosks at the event site will prevent Covid-19 infections. Participants must fill out the medical questionnaires and receive individual QR codes before entering the conference. The KHS limited the number of participants for each indoor seminar to 48.

For online participants, the KHS opened an online-only website and provided information for login for those who have completed the online registration in advance.

The simultaneous online and offline conference affected how pharmaceutical companies install exhibition booths.

Promotional booths for drug companies are either offline at the event site or online.

The KHS requested drugmakers to refrain from holding events at the offline booth and install clear acrylic desk shields to prevent any viral transmissions through droplets.

An online booth will provide abstracts in a file, including information about the company and products.

The KHS had asked pharmaceutical firms to submit posters and related data to operate online booths.

Pharmaceutical companies attending the conference said they could understand why the KHS conference was going online and offline in the Covid-19 crisis.

However, they expressed regret that their participation in the conference would not yield anticipated marketing effects as much as they had hoped.

“As seen in the offline conferences held after Covid-19, the conference's participation rate is expected to be low,” an official at a drugmaker said.