Hong Kong authorities yesterday activated a newly created “serious response” level as fears spread about a mysterious infectious disease that might have been introduced to the territory by visitors to a mainland Chinese city.
Five possible cases have been reported of a viral pneumonia that has also infected at least 44 people in Wuhan, an inland city west of Shanghai, about 900km north of Hong Kong.
The outbreak, which emerged last month, has revived memories of the 2002-2003 SARS epidemic that started in southern China and killed more than 700 people in the mainland, Hong Kong and elsewhere.
Photo: AP
The serious response level indicates a moderate effect on Hong Kong’s population of 7.5 million people. It is the second-highest in a three-tier system that is part of a new government plan launched yesterday to respond to infectious diseases of unknown cause.
The Hong Kong Department of Health on Friday added an additional thermal imaging system at Hong Kong International Airport to check the body temperature of arriving passengers. More staff have been assigned for temperature checks at the West Kowloon high-speed rail station that connects Hong Kong with China.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) on a visit to the train station on Friday to review the health surveillance measures urged any travelers who develop respiratory symptoms to wear surgical masks, seek medical attention and let doctors know where they have visited.
Wuhan’s health commission said that 11 of 44 people diagnosed with the pneumonia were in a critical condition as of Friday.
All were being treated in isolation and 121 others who had been in close contact with them were under observation, it added.
Most of the cases have been traced to the South China Seafood City food market in the suburbs of sprawling Wuhan, where offerings reportedly include wild animals that can carry viruses dangerous to humans.
The market has been disinfected, the commission said.
The most common symptom has been fever, with shortness of breath and lung infections in a small number of cases, the commission said, adding that there have been no clear indications of human-to-human transmission of the disease.
The latest cases in Hong Kong are two females, aged 12 and 41, who had been to Wuhan in the past two weeks, but did not appear to have visited the food market, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority said, adding that they were in a stable condition and being treated in isolation at Princess Margaret Hospital.
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