The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's health authorities on Friday evening lifted a quarantine on the Metropark Hotel in Wanchai, Hong Kong, marking the end of quarantine arrangements following the first confirmed case of influenza A/H1N1 in the city.

A total of 286 people in the hotel were held under quarantine after a 25-year-old Mexican was confirmed to have influenza A/H1N1 on May 1 and stayed in the hotel in Hong Kong.

At about 8:15 PM windows of the hotel previously covered with cloth were removed and the guests came out of the site 15 minutes later. Some representatives from the Metropark showed up at the hotel entrance and cheered for the confined staff and guests.

The scene has attracted a large crowd of media and passers-by there, including a local resident Miss Chan, who told the reporter that it was important for the government to take such a move in order to prevent the disease from spreading.

Among those guests who will continue their stay in Hong Kong, about 100 will move to the City Garden Hotel located in North Point, while some 50 others will lodge in the Royal Plaza Hotel in Mongkok as arranged by the Hong Kong government.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang went to the inspect the site and made a remark, saying the uncord of the hotel on Friday marked the end of all quarantine arrangements arising from the first, and so far the only, confirmed case of influenza A/H1N1 in Hong Kong.

Tsang was thankful for the sacrifice the guests had made for the sake of public health as well as those who had taken part in this quarantine operation.

He said the threat of the influenza A/H1N1 to Hong Kong had not gone and the battle was far from over and the government would continue to monitor the situation.

According to the government's information department on Friday, 61 people who were put under quarantine at the MacLehose Holiday Village and those at the hospital had been released. Adding to the 34 people who finished isolation on May 7, no one is put on isolation in Hong Kong at the moment.

The Mexican patient involved in the first confirmed influenza H1N1 case in Hong Kong was discharged from a local hospital on Friday evening, said the government.

As Hong Kong reported no new case of influenza A/H1N1 on seven consecutive days, Secretary for Food and Health York Chow said Friday that the city had cleared the first round in the battle of epidemic control.

Speaking at the daily briefing on the flu situation on Friday afternoon, Chow said Hong Kong has successfully prevented the spread of the disease since the first case confirmed on May 1 and one could feel relief at the moment.

However, since Hong Kong was an international metropolis with high turnover of travelers from different countries and regions every day, Chow said more cases might arise in future and the city should continue to stay vigilant.

He added that it would be inappropriate to lower the influenza alert level which has been raised to its top-scale -- "emergency" since the first flu case confirmed.

Chairman of Department of Medicine and Therapeutics of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Joseph Sung Jao-yiu told Xinhua that the city could be said to be temporarily released from the threat of the disease since no new case was found thus far.

Sung said that the first confirmed flu case detected in Hong Kong had allowed local experts to verify the accuracy of the testing method.

He added that staying alert to global information about the new strain and taking precautious measures at border control points were important to prevent the possible outbreak of influenza.

In the past 24 hours, a total of eight people had been tested for the new flu, said Controller of Center for Health Protection Thomas Tsang at the daily briefing, adding three of them were negative to the virus while results of the rest are pending.

A total of 54 people had been tested for the new strain and only one case showed positive, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 9, 2009)