7 May 2009
Quarantine measures which had been imposed on 34 people following the confirmation of a case of human swine influenza (Influenza A H1N1) in Hong Kong on May 1 were removed today (May 7), a spokesman for the Department of Health said.
The people concerned included travellers who arrived in Hong Kong on the same flight with the 25-year-old Mexican male who tested positive for human swine flu and one of the two taxi drivers who came into contact with the patient. They have been released following health checks by the health authorities.
Twenty-eight of them were staying in Lady MacLehose Holiday Village, three in Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village and three in Princess Margaret Hospital during the seven-day quarantine period.
The spokesman said the travellers concerned had been issued with a medical certificate from the Department of Health stating that they had cleared the quarantine and that no symptoms of being infected with the flu virus were found on them.
The second taxi driver who is now in Lady MacLehose Holiday Village will be released this evening. The other close contact of the index patient who accompanied him to hospital will also be released this evening.
Another group of people who might have come into contact with the patient at Metropark Hotel in Wan Chai and who had been quarantined would be released tomorrow evening, the spokesman said.