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HONG KONG: Hong Kong's seven-day quarantine of 300 guests and staff in a city centre hotel over swine flu fears has sparked frustration among those detained as one expert called the move "pointless".
The lock-in, which even officials have conceded is "draconian", was enforced after a Mexican visitor who stayed in the Metropark hotel for around seven hours became Asia's first confirmed case of human swine flu on Friday.
He remained in a stable condition on Sunday, officials said.
While emergency measures have been taken across the world where the A(H1N1) virus has been confirmed, only Hong Kong has isolated an entire hotel.
Inside the four-star hotel, in the bustling bar district of Wanchai, frustration was beginning to simmer.
"We have had one Korean who was screaming and shouting and an English couple who were very upset," Indian buying agent Kevin Ireland told AFP by phone.
On Saturday, a masked female guest broke down and had to be comforted by a health worker, an AFP reporter witnessed.
The endless diet of rice dishes and lack of television channels was also beginning to grind, said Ireland, who added that he understood the decision.
Lo Wing-lok, a Hong Kong doctor and infectious diseases expert, said the government had over-reacted.
"It is pointless. Flu is a droplet disease and so you have to be within six feet or two metres of the person. Beyond that the risk is not high," said Lo.
"The hotel is just one point in a chain of places taking this patient from the airline to the hospital. It is more a political show than having any real meaning in containment of this particular flu."
Lo said the threat of a seven-day lock-in would scare people from coming forward. Officials were Sunday still trying to trace around 50 people who had left the building before the quarantine was introduced Friday night.
Others were furious with the seven-day detention.
One police source, who did not want to be named, said a Russian man who returned to the hotel Friday had issued a list of demands to officers, including payment for his entire trip and compensation, before he would agree to go back.
Any guests who tried to leave the city would be detained, the source added.
Carlo Hessing, a Dutch guest, was taken to hospital as a precaution because he had a high temperature, before returning to the hotel.
"People in white protective gear come and go constantly. Everyone is walking around with masks in front of their mouths.... It is like being in a giant operating theatre," Hessing told Dutch television station NOS by phone.
Gabriel Leung, a top government health official, apologised for any inconvenience.
"We would like to thank the hotel's guests and staff, who have shown tremendous understanding and courage," he told reporters.
"Of course, we realise that this is not an easy situation, but nearly all the residents have been very, very accommodating and understand why we have made this decision."
Audrey Eu, a pro-democratic legislator and lawyer, said the government was acting within its "very broad" emergency powers.
"I think the Hong Kong people would prefer the government to be over-cautious after the first case," said Eu.
The tough measures come within the context of the 2003 SARS outbreak, when nearly 300 people died and the city became a virtual ghost town.
At the time, the government faced severe criticism for not acting quickly enough. Its later quarantine measures, which saw hundreds of people detained, were praised for containing the deadly disease.
Gavin Smith, a virologist at Hong Kong University, said the quarantine was justified.
"With influenza, people are infected before they show symptoms. It seems to me like quite a reasonable measure," he told AFP.
Olivier Dolige, a 43-year-old French businessman, was trapped after coming to meet clients at the Metropark. He said despite the lack of laundry facilities and basic food, there had been some bright spots.
"We have managed to smuggle in some Australian wine and sweets into the hotel," he told a French Sunday newspaper.
- AFP/yt
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