HONG KONG, May 2, 2009 (AFP) - Hong Kong officials were Saturday trying to track down 50 people who never returned to a city hotel after it was placed under quarantine when a Mexican guest tested positive for swine flu.
The city was put on its highest health alert after the 25-year-old man was found to be carrying the A(H1N1) virus on Friday, the first confirmed case of swine flu in Asia.
The government made the extraordinary move of quarantining around 300 guests and staff at the four-star Metropark hotel for seven days.
But Thomas Tsang, controller of the Centre for Health Protection, said officials were still trying to trace 50 guests who may have left the hotel before it was isolated and have not returned.
Tsang added that seven more people had been tested on suspicion of contracting swine flu since the confirmed case.
Two, including one child who was on the same flight as the Mexican, had tested negative while the results of the five others were still awaited, Tsang told reporters.
A spokesman for the Dutch Foreign Ministry in The Hague told AFP that three Dutch nationals staying at the Metropark had been hospitalised.
"One of the three had an elevated body temperature. I do not know the reason for the hospitalisation of the others, but it is probably the same," said Herbet Brinkman, adding three other Dutch nationals were also at the hotel.
Hong Kong officials said they could not confirm the nationalities of those being tested. Reports have said Canadians, French, Swiss and Chinese nationals were among those staying at the hotel in the city's Wanchai bar district.
The Mexican man was admitted to hospital in Hong Kong on Thursday night after flying into the city from Mexico, via Shanghai.
He went to hospital suffering from a fever and tested positive on Friday for the flu virus. He was in a stable condition, authorities have said.
Two travelling companions and a Hong Kong friend were also placed in quarantine, although Health Secretary York Chow said they had shown no flu symptoms.
Around 10 passengers who sat near the 25-year-old Mexican on China Eastern Airlines flight MU 505 from Shanghai and the two taxi drivers who drove him after he arrived in Hong Kong have all been located and their cases were being investigated, Tsang said.
China said Saturday it was to put all passengers on the man's flight from Mexico to Shanghai into quarantine, after suspending all flights from the Latin American country on Friday.
Despite the sealing of the hotel - and with the memory of the deadly 2003 SARS outbreak still fresh in people's minds - Hong Kong residents remained cautiously calm.
Amy Wong, who was one of the many people stocking up on protective face masks at a pharmacy near the quarantined hotel, said she was buying the medical equipment "just to be safe."
"There is nothing to be scared of. We have experience of this," she said.
SARS killed close to 300 people in Hong Kong and residents have been quick to step up hygiene measures since swine flu began to spread around the globe.
Protective face masks were much more common on public transport and in restaurants Saturday. Sales of disinfectants have also spiked, while offices have been warned to step up cleaning measures.
However, the city's residents did not stay indoors.
The annual Cheung Chau Bun Festival, which marks the end of an 18th Century plague on one of the city's outlying islands, was still bustling with visitors.
The decision to close the Metropark Hotel has drawn criticism.
"It is stupid to lock up the hotel, as most people in the hotel did not contact (the infected man) at all," infectious diseases expert Lo Wing-lok told the South China Morning Post.
"I believe this is going to be an international joke."
In South Korea, authorities Saturday confirmed the second case in Asia, as several European countries also said they had fresh incidences of the virus.
Mexico's government has confirmed 16 people have died from swine flu, with 381 infected.
hattip PABLOMORGAN
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