Hong Kong reports no new confirmed flu case on Sunday
2009/05/14

HONG KONG, May 3 (Xinhua) -- There has been no new confirmed case of influenza A/H1N1 in Hong Kong apart from the city's first case involving a Mexican man, who was now in stable condition in a local hospital, officials said Sunday.

    The Center for Health Protection received reports on 15 patients in line with the reporting criteria for influenza A/H1N1 within the last 24 hours or so, but the possibility of infection has been ruled out for five of them, while laboratory tests on the other ten were still going on, said Thomas Tsang, controller of the center.

    The Metropark Hotel in Wanchai, where the 25-year-old Mexican patient lived for hours before seeking help from doctors at a nearby hospital on Thursday, was still in quarantine. Of the more than 350 guests and staff members who lived at the hotel at the time, 60 were now in quarantine at a local vacation house and in stable condition.

    Authorities were still trying to track down no more than 50 of the guests who have not contacted health authorities since the quarantine order was enforced, Tsang told reporters at a daily briefing on the latest flu-related developments.

    Of the two taxi drivers who fetched the patient from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the hospital, respectively, one was now in quarantine with no flu-like symptoms.

    Authorities have yet to identify the other driver. A taxi driver did contact health authorities by phone earlier to say that he was the one, but failed to show up and, when tracked down with the help of police, denied he was the one.