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Hong Kong health officials said yesterday they were testing 10 more suspected cases of swine flu, as the search for anyone who may have come into contact with the city's only positive case continued.
Thomas Tsang, controller of the center for Health Protection (CHP), said 15 new cases of people with flu-like symptoms who have travelled to countries with confirmed swine flu outbreaks had been tested since Saturday. Five had been given the all-clear, while the others were undergoing further tests, Tsang told reporters.
The city was put on its highest health alert after a 25-year-old Mexican man was found to be carrying the A(H1N1) virus on Friday, the first confirmed case of swine flu in Asia. He remained in a stable condition yesterday, Tsang said, and there had been no other positive cases.
Around 300 guests and staff at a hotel where the Mexican stayed have been quarantined for seven days, but officials were still trying to trace a further 50 hotel guests who have not returned. Tsang said the names of the missing guests have been passed to immigration officials in the southern Chinese city. "They will not be able to leave," he said.
In a bizarre twist, one of the two taxi drivers believed to have driven the Mexican before he went to hospital changed his story yesterday and said he had only pretended to be the driver in order to test the hotline system.
Gabriel Leung, the under secretary for food and health, said police were now investigating whether or not the man was the real taxi driver. The other taxi driver has been placed in quarantine at a specially converted isolation camp, although he was not showing any flu symptoms, a CHP spokesman said earlier.
Inside the hotel, guests were stoical about the seven-day detention, although there has been some signs of frustration.
Kevin Ireland, an Indian buying agent, said one Korean man and a English couple had been upset, but he said he understood the move.
"It is better to be cautious," he said by phone from inside the hotel.
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news...ng_news&cate_img=316.jpg&cate_rss=news_Health
Thomas Tsang, controller of the center for Health Protection (CHP), said 15 new cases of people with flu-like symptoms who have travelled to countries with confirmed swine flu outbreaks had been tested since Saturday. Five had been given the all-clear, while the others were undergoing further tests, Tsang told reporters.
The city was put on its highest health alert after a 25-year-old Mexican man was found to be carrying the A(H1N1) virus on Friday, the first confirmed case of swine flu in Asia. He remained in a stable condition yesterday, Tsang said, and there had been no other positive cases.
Around 300 guests and staff at a hotel where the Mexican stayed have been quarantined for seven days, but officials were still trying to trace a further 50 hotel guests who have not returned. Tsang said the names of the missing guests have been passed to immigration officials in the southern Chinese city. "They will not be able to leave," he said.
In a bizarre twist, one of the two taxi drivers believed to have driven the Mexican before he went to hospital changed his story yesterday and said he had only pretended to be the driver in order to test the hotline system.
Gabriel Leung, the under secretary for food and health, said police were now investigating whether or not the man was the real taxi driver. The other taxi driver has been placed in quarantine at a specially converted isolation camp, although he was not showing any flu symptoms, a CHP spokesman said earlier.
Inside the hotel, guests were stoical about the seven-day detention, although there has been some signs of frustration.
Kevin Ireland, an Indian buying agent, said one Korean man and a English couple had been upset, but he said he understood the move.
"It is better to be cautious," he said by phone from inside the hotel.
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news...ng_news&cate_img=316.jpg&cate_rss=news_Health