Room 911 at Hong Kong's Metropole Hotel was the epicenter of the global SARS outbreak. A year last Saturday, a sick doctor from southern China checked in, bringing with him a terrifying virus that would spread panic and death through Hong Kong and the world.
Yesterday was the anniversary of the day Professor Liu Jianlun was rushed to a nearby hospital after infecting at least 16 guests and visitors.
One year on, every room in the Kowloon hotel was full except for the one he stayed in -- room 911 no longer exists.
The room, which hotel management once considered turning into a museum dedicated to the SARS outbreak, has had the brass plaque bearing the infamous number on its door removed and has replaced it with the number 913.
Every subsequent odd-numbered room on the ninth floor, where Liu infected guests and visitors from Hong Kong, Canada and Singapore who would take the virus around the world, has had its number changed too.
Guests are apparently being told nothing of the hotel's bizarre decision to renumber room 911 out of existence.
A reporter who phoned to ask what had happened to room 911 was told brusquely by a duty manager: "The number of that room has always been 913."
A request to the operator on the in-house phone to put a call through to room 911 was met with the response: "I'm sorry but that line is engaged." A "clean up room" light was on outside room 913, showing it was occupied, though no one answered the door.
The role played by Liu and room 911 in the global SARS outbreak cannot be overstated. It was the subject of an investigation by the WHO, which believes most of the 8,422 cases and 916 deaths in 29 countries can be traced back to the Metropole, excluding those in China.
Liu, a respiratory diseases expert in one of Guangzhou's biggest hospitals, was already infected with SARS when he arrived in Hong Kong on Feb. 21, 2003. The next day he was admitted to the Kwong Wah Hospital hundreds of meters from the hotel, where he died on March 4.
At first it was thought that he spread the virus by coughing and sneezing on fellow guests as they waited for a lift together in the ninth floor corridor. Later, investigations found he may have been sick on the carpet outside room 911, which may have spread the virus.
Overseas guests -- including a 78-year-old woman from Toronto, an American-Chinese businessman bound for Hanoi and three Singaporeans -- carried the virus overseas while a 26-year-old airport technician visiting a friend on the ninth floor was later admitted to the Prince Of Wales Hospital, setting off an outbreak there.
Business continued as usual at the Metropole until its fatal link with the outbreak was discovered on March 19, setting off panic among guests and an exodus from the 487-room hotel.
It seemed in the months afterwards that business would never recover and resident manager Kaivin Ng said on June 22 last year, when occupancy rates recovered to 20 percent: "We might turn the whole floor, or just room 911 where Professor Liu stayed, into a museum."
Soon after, however, the ninth floor was reopened as the spectre of SARS passed and tourists -- particularly the growing number of Chinese tourists allowed in on package tours -- flooded back into Hong Kong with a vengeance.
On Saturday, the hotel's restaurant and lobby was bustling with guests mostly from China who seemed unconcerned about the grim history of the hotel.
Only one man walking into the lobby restaurant was wearing a face mask, the ubiquitous symbol of last year's Hong Kong SARS outbreak.
A receptionist said: "The hotel is fully booked."
A concierge remarked: "We're bursting at the seams. If you want to book a room, you should call at least a week in advance."
One guest, retired Geraldine Pearse from Swansea in Wales, who was staying at the Metropole for four nights as part of a package tour, said: "I thought this was the SARS hotel at the time I booked it but I didn't want to ask when I got here."
"Anyway I'm a great believer that when your time's up, your time's up," Pearse said.
Even if I'd known for sure it wouldn't have stopped me staying here. It must have been very scary here at the time but Hong Kong has been clear of SARS for a long time now," Pearse said.
I'd be more worried about going to Bangkok because of bird flu right now," Pearse said.
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
RSS