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All suspected MERS cases test negative after false alarm in HK

Xinhua, June 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

All 33 suspected cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) reported in the past 24 hours before Wednesday noon in Hong Kong tested negative, according to the region's health authorities on Thursday.

The Center for Health Protection said the 16 cases pending results on June 10 tested negative for MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Results of the other 17 cases, which were all negative, were already released on Wednesday.

"No human infection with MERS-CoV has been identified so far in Hong Kong," a spokesman for the center stressed.

A 22-year-old woman developed symptoms of fever and runny nose after returning from a trip to South Korea and attended a clinic in Tsing Yi, the New Territories of Hong Kong on June 10.

The clinic was then closed and areas around were cordoned off for disinfection. It reopened on Thursday morning after the woman tested negative for MERS.

While the test result of the case was pending, rumors about MERS being confirmed in Hong Kong have swirled on the internet, sparking off panic.

The center's spokesman reiterated that the Hong Kong government expressed great concern to the spreading rumors on MERS and appealed to the public not to divert their attention to these rumors.

In South Korea, where the outbreak of MERS is the largest outside Saudi Arabia, 122 confirmed cases have been reported and 10 have died of the disease which is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that triggered Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus that devastated Hong Kong in 2003.

Hong Kong stepped up notification mechanism from Thursday by giving updates of MERS suspected cases twice, rather than once, a day.

"The government will be as transparent as possible in the dissemination of information on suspected cases of MERS." said the spokesman, adding the health authorities will inform the public as soon as possible once the test results of suspected cases are available. Endi