'Lax measures due to fear of offending Beijing'

'Lax measures due to fear of offending Beijing'

Pro-democracy lawmakers have lashed out at the government for what they call lax prevention efforts against the Wuhan virus and accused top officials of not implementing tougher steps out of fear of offending Beijing.



At a press conference, the opposition lawmakers said the steps taken by the government so far have not been effective as the discovery of two cases in the city have shown.



The two men who have tested positive for the virus are now being classified as "highly suspicious" cases as officials await final confirmation.



The Democratic Party's Helena Wong accused officials of lacking the guts to issue warnings like advice against travelling to the mainland as they fear this would offend Beijing. She said officials must formulate policies professionally.



The opposition urged the authorities to raise the alert level from serious to emergency, and set aside passageways and checking stations at all border points for travellers who have been to Wuhan recently.



Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki, who’s also a medical doctor, said incoming visitors must be made to fill out health declaration forms as this would make it easy to track those who had been in close contact with any patient.



He noted that Health Secretary Sophia Chan on Thursday night said measures such as thermal imaging are effective. But this has failed, being as in the second reported case the patient did not have a fever and could not have been screened out, he said.



Kwok said this is why health declaration forms are important as the man might have reported that he was feeling unwell.



The lawmakers also said it was unacceptable that the authorities let the family of the first victim freely travel in, and then out, of the city.