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To crack down on the spread of atypical pneumonia, Director of Health Dr Margaret Chan announced that, from tomorrow, home-confinement arrangements for families of atypical pneumonia patients would extend to 'suspect' cases, also.
As at 1pm today, 30 new patients in public hospitals were confirmed to have the disease. A total of 567 patients - more than 38% of all confirmed cases - have recovered and been discharged from public hospitals. Of them, 45 were sent home today.
The new confirmed cases include include three healthcare workers (one from Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, one from St Teresa's Hospital, and one from Baptist Hospital). The other 27 are other patients and contacts of patients with atypical pneumonia.
Most of the 812 patients currently in hospital are responding positively to the new treatment protocol. Of them, 108, about 13%, are receiving treatment in intensive-care units.
Another 135 patients are recovering in convalescence, in preparation for discharge.
Four men died in the last day; all of them had chronic illnesses.
One died in Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, aged 64; one in Princess Margaret Hospital, aged 39; one in Tuen Mun Hospital, aged 87; and one in Tai Po Hospital, aged 71.
This brought to 109 the total number of deaths relating to atypical pneumonia.
Families of 'suspect' cases to be confined to homes
The Department of Health will order about 60 to 70 people from 30 families of 'suspected' atypical pneumonia cases to quarantine themselves in their homes for 10 days.
The buildings in which they live will be added to the department's list.
It was better to be safe than sorry, Dr Chan said. "Even if we overdo things a bit, we are doing this to protect their health and to prevent the spread of SARS into the community."
Home confinement measures working
She told reporters at the afternoon press briefing that as of today, 301 households with 787 people were in isolation. "Up to this moment - we've had the system in place for two weeks - we have obtained cooperation from all parties concerned," she said.
So far, 21 people under home quarantine orders have had to be sent to hospital because they showed symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
The department has also issued 33 warning letters to people who had violated their order; however, none have breached it a second time.
WHO team leader arrives in Hong Kong
The leader of the environmental hygiene team from the World Health Organisation, Senior Advisor Dr William Cocksedge, arrived in Hong Kong today and met with Dr Chan and representatives from other Government departments.
Other WHO members will be arriving in the next day or two, she said. "We will work closely with other Government departments, depending on what kinds of studies we need to do in Hong Kong.
"We're trying to summarise the global experience of this disease," she said, "and we must consider what role is played by environmental factors."
Canada, too, has seen the disease spread in buildings. WHO experts want to study the two places to see if places with higher population densities and certain building designs may have similarities in the way the virus spreads.
"We will try to study special features in Hong Kong and will decide on the way forward," she said. The WHO team will be here for three weeks.
Dr Chan expressed her gratitude to other Government departments for their assistance in the investigation into the Amoy Garden outbreak. She noted that while they had uncovered four factors that could explain it, "they may not be exhaustive".
"With WHO experts, we will carry out further investigations. In our initial meeting today, we came to the conclusion that we may be able to find more causes, another possibility is that irrespective of how much more we investigate, will not find any further causes," she said.
Either way, the WHO will help boost recognition of the report. "It's an important step. Public credibility is very important. The Hong Kong Government adopted an open and transparent attitude. Maybe we have not identified all the causes, and we've admitted that. If our conclusions are quite good, we'll quantify those results," she said.
Cross-boundary cooperation working
Hong Kong and Shenzhen have reached a landmark agreement, Dr Chan said. "Concurrently, the two places will implement checks at boundary control points, both parties will adopt temperature-taking measures to avoid duplication of work."
Each side will take the temperature of its incoming passengers.
On Saturday, 15 infrared scanners will be installed at the checkpoint on the Hong Kong side at Lo Wu; another 235 devices will be installed at Lo Wu and the other boundary crossings - at Lok Ma Chau, Man Kam To, Sha Tau Kok - by mid-May.
"I want to thank the Mainland authorities for their help, not only for the instalation of equipment, but also for taking the measures at the same time as we do, to boost safety measures for passengers," Dr Chan said.
Temperature check procedures running smoothly
The system for taking passengers' temperature has been running smoothly, Dr Chan said. At the airport, more than 67,464 departing passengers had had a temperature check, and not one of them showed atypical pneumonia symptoms.
Up to now, more than 4,318 incoming passengers had been checked, and none was discovered to have a fever.
This morning, officials started taking temperatures of arriving passengers at Lo Wu and Hung Hom. Of about 1,000 people checked, none had had a fever.
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