Some of Finns quarantined in Hong Kong were on plane with Mexican virus man

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On Sunday, the Hong Kong authorities did not give any signs of releasing the four Finns, some 200 other guests, and a staff of around 100 who are being held in quarantine in a Hong Kong hotel because of the H1N1 swine 'flu outbreak.
      ”They are adamant in their decision that they are not to give in”, says Consul Ulpu Koskinen of the Finnish Consulate in Hong Kong.
     
The entire hotel was forced into quarantine on Friday, after a Mexican man - who had stayed at the hotel for some hours - had been tested positive for the H1N1 influenza virus.
      A Finnish couple and two Finnish women, one of whom is travelling with her French husband, are staying at the same hotel on their holiday trip.
      It turned out already on Saturday that among the hotel guests there is also a Finnish female resident of Norway with her Norwegian husband.
      Some of the Finns arrived in Hong Kong on the same flight from Shanghai as the Mexican man with the H1N1 virus, Koskinen reports.
      The Mexican man who is being held in quarantine managed to cause a lot of confusion in Hong Kong. Among other things, the authorities tried to put into quarantine all those travellers who had been on the same flight as the man.
      The Finns do not have any symptoms of the virus and they are in cheerful spirits, Koskinen notes.
     
The hotel guests have been asked to stay in their rooms, and they are given food ”more or less through a crack in the door”, Koskinen says.
      Information about the situation is given by a central radio, while notes have also been slipped into rooms under the door, Koskinen reports.
      Moreover, all quarantined people are required to have their temperatures taken once a day.
     
The Hong Kong authorities are trying to prevent similar chaos to that of the SARS epidemic six years ago, which killed some 300 people in Hong Kong and paralysed the entire city.
      Consul Koskinen said that the Finns have been asked whether they want any books or playing cards from the Finnish Consulate. The Finns can communicate with their relatives and friends using the hotel phone.
      The hotel tried to calm down the guests by promising to give them HKD 200 (EUR 20) per day each, South China Morning Post reported.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Swine flu scare spurs demand for masks (30.4.2009)
  Finland prepared even for major epidemic of swine flu (28.4.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat