Hong Kong plans to turn two holiday camps, including a former military barracks, into quarantine zones for people who might have come into contact with carriers of the novel coronavirus 2019 (2019-nCoV), officials announced yesterday.
The international financial hub, which has been on high alert for the virus, used the same sites as quarantine facilities during the deadly SARS outbreak 17 years ago.
Nearly 300 people in Hong Kong were killed by SARS, a tragedy that left a profound psychological impact on one of the most densely populated places in the world.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Two people in the territory have so far tested positive for the new coronavirus, which is similar to the SARS pathogen. Both had visited Wuhan in recent days, but were being treated on isolation wards in hospitals.
Hong Kong officials announced that they would convert the two holiday parks to isolate any potential cases while they await test results.
“We will have a full team of staff to operate the quarantine camps,” Centre for Health Protection director Wong Ka-hing told reporters.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Wong said that three people who had come into close contact with the two confirmed cases would be taken later yesterday to a camp in rural Sai Kung District.
Another holiday camp, a former British military barracks on Hong Kong Island, was being prepared to serve as a quarantine facility.
The three people are the wife of one of the confirmed cases and two medical staff, health officials said.
Those who test positive for 2019-nCoV would then be treated in isolation wards at the territory’s hospitals, but the holiday camp quarantine zones would lower the risk of the virus spreading while people await results.
The same system was used during the SARS outbreak, which dramatically transformed Hong Kong into a place where the population is now far more conscious of contagion and hygiene standards.
Door handles, elevator buttons and escalator handles in the territory’s myriad skyscrapers and mass transit stations are routinely sterilized multiple times a day, while an unguarded sneeze on the crowded subway can cause neighboring commuters to scramble for distance.
Surgical masks are ubiquitous, not just in the winter flu season, with many shops selling out over the past few days.
Hong Kong’s difficulties in battling SARS were compounded by the veil of secrecy that surrounded the outbreak in China, but officials insist that they are more prepared than in 2003 and say that Chinese authorities are being much more transparent with data.
Nonetheless, suspicion of China remains high in Hong Kong, especially as it convulses with anti-government protests sparked by fears that Beijing is eroding the territory’s freedoms.
Yesterday, Hong Kong health officials were questioned by reporters as to why they were not advising all arrivals at the territory’s high-speed train link with the mainland to fill out health declaration forms.
“We are now actively considering extending the compulsory health declaration to cover the high-speed rail link,” Wong said.
He added that any decision to cancel Lunar New Year celebrations, like Macau has, would need to be made by the government.
Officials have also been criticized by opposition lawmakers for allowing relatives of the first confirmed case to travel on to Manila.
Hong Kong’s train operator MTR Corp said it was no longer selling tickets to and from Wuhan.
Local media reported long queues at the high-speed terminus yesterday as passengers sought refunds.
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