HK prepares quarantine camps in case of outbreak

HK prepares quarantine camps in case of outbreak

Hong Kong authorities say two holiday camps in the city have been designated as quarantine centres should the deadly new virus which has broken out in Wuhan reach the SAR.



Health Secretary Sophia Chan said on Wednesday that close contacts of patients will be sent to these camps, and once inside families would be kept apart from each other.



She said the government would meet on Thursday to decide whether further such camps should be made available.



Chan said the quarantine measures can be activated within a few hours if they become necessary.



"The Centre For Health Protection would have to identify these close contacts and then put them under medical surveillance," she said.



"All these close contacts being identified by the Centre For Health Protection would be isolated in the holiday camps."



When Sars – which is related to the new illness – hit Hong Kong in 2003, the government set up quarantine camps in Sai Kung, Lei Yue Mun and the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village.



No cases of the new virus have been confirmed yet in Hong Kong, but the illness has already reached Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and the United States.