HONG KONG (AP) — Hundreds of tourists and employees were under quarantine in a downtown Hong Kong hotel Saturday after a Mexican guest tested positive for swine flu. With the outbreak on its doorstep, China suspended direct flights from the Latin American country.
Hours after the first confirmed case in Asia was reported, the continent got its second: Tests showed a South Korean woman also had the disease. She has been under quarantine since returning earlier this week from Mexico, the epicenter of the disease.
Sixteen people in Mexico and one toddler in the U.S. have died from the disease. More than 650 cases have been confirmed worldwide, with 397 in Mexico. Canada, Israel, New Zealand and more than a half-dozen European countries have also confirmed cases.
Though U.S. officials have already begun to express hope the epidemic may fizzle, authorities sprang into action in Hong Kong, where memories of 2003's deadly SARS outbreak are still fresh. Experts fear the disease will be more difficult to contain if it begins to spread through Asia's densely populated countries.
Health workers in white bodysuits patrolled the lobby of Metropark Hotel in Hong Kong early Saturday as guests picked up bottles of water, chocolate milk and bread before returning to their rooms by elevator. About a dozen police officers wearing masks guarded the building, which was cordoned off.
An Australian tourist who spent the night with friends in a Hong Kong suburb returned to the hotel Saturday morning to join the quarantine.
James Parer, 38, told reporters as he entered the hotel that he was not worried because the territory could draw on experience from its battle with SARS, severe acute respiratory disease.
"Hong Kong is the best place this could happen because it should be best prepared," said Parer, who was visiting Hong Kong from Brisbane to attend a trade fair.
During the 2003 SARS outbreak, an infected doctor who checked into a Hong Kong hotel later died, but not before infecting a resident of the Chinese territory and 16 other hotel guests. Those guests spread the virus internationally, which eventually killed more than 770 people, including 299 in Hong Kong.
Officials who did not initially impose quarantine measures during SARS were accused of responding slowly to the public health crisis.
But Kevin Ireland, visiting from India on a business trip, suggested officials were overreacting.
"I would prefer them to be practical, evaluate the risk more thoroughly before taking this stringent measure, but the government has different ways in approaching the issue," the 45-year-old told The Associated Press by phone.
The government defended its decision to act late Friday after a 25-year-old Mexican man was diagnosed with the disease.
"Given the current situation, I'd rather err on the side of caution than miss the opportunity to contain the disease," Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang said late Friday.
A World Health Organization spokesman said the body supported Hong Kong's move.
"We don't have a policy on quarantining hotels in situations like this, but we like governments to be as sure as they can that they're controlling the situation rather than missing opportunities. So in that context, we're happy with what Hong Kong has done," said Peter Cordingley.
Reporters swarmed around the Metropark, in the city's Wan Chai bar and office district, pressing pieces of paper with their phone numbers against the lobby's window. Photos that ran in Hong Kong newspapers Saturday showed one masked guest flashing a handwritten sign to journalists overnight that said: "We will exchange information for beer and food and cigarettes."
Officials have conducted medical checkups on about 200 of the guests and staff holed up at the Metropark. Sixty people who had mild symptoms were taken to hospitals for follow-ups, Thomas Tsang, controller of Hong Kong's Center of Health Protection was quoted as saying on radio RTHK's Web site Saturday.
Ireland, the business traveler, said some guests appeared anxious and others were just bored.
"I'm not worried, but there are some people who are really panicked," he said. "We don't have any books to read. It's boring, but what can one do?"
Officials in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong hurried to locate the infected tourist's recent contacts on flights from Mexico to Shanghai and from Shanghai to Hong Kong.
The patient, who was not identified, arrived in Shanghai on AeroMexico flight AM 98 and continued on to Hong Kong on China Eastern Airlines flight MU 505. He developed a fever after arriving in the territory Thursday afternoon and is now in stable condition and isolated at a hospital.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a notice on its Web site that it would suspend flights from Mexico to Shanghai, the only city in the mainland where direct flights land.
The government was also looking for 11 people who arrived in Shanghai on a flight from Mexico Thursday and traveled to southern China, raising questions about whether Beijing can effectively track those who could be infected.
South Korea also confirmed its first case of the disease on Saturday, state disease control center chief Lee Jong-koo said. The 51-year-old woman returned from Mexico on April 26 and reported to authorities the next day that she had flu symptoms. She has been quarantined, but a doctor treating her told reporters Saturday that she is in good condition with few symptoms.
In New Zealand, the first country in the Asia-Pacific region with confirmed cases, the tally remained at four Saturday, Health Minister Tony Ryall told reporters.
Across the region, governments ordered more Tamiflu antiviral medication and checked travelers entering the country from North America.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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