Wuhan flu: Number infected in Hong Kong jumps to 15 on Sunday
HONG KONG Hong Kong's Food and Health Secretary Sophia Chan Siu Chee said yesterday that seven more people are being treated for a possible viral pneumonia.
With the newly reported cases, the authorities believe a total of 15 patients in Hong Kong may have contracted a mysterious respiratory disease that has infected at least 44 people in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
As of Friday, 11 of the 44 were in critical condition.
The increase of seven more patients has prompted Hong Kong to activate a newly created "serious response" level as fears spread that the infectious disease might have been imported to the city by visitors to Wuhan.
The serious response level indicates a moderate impact on Hong Kong's population of 7.5 million people. It is the second highest in a three-tier system.
The 44 people in Wuhan are being treated for the illness that is said to have originated from a wet market there.
Said Ms Chan: "People are reminded not to visit the wet market or eat wild animals when travelling."
In Singapore, tests have found that the first suspected case of the virus, involving a three-year-old girl from China, is not linked to the pneumonia cluster in Wuhan, the Health Ministry said yesterday.
The outbreak, which emerged last week, has revived memories of the Sars epidemic in 2003 that killed more than 700 people in China, Hong Kong and elsewhere. - AP
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