May 1, 2009

China takes precautions as swine flu hits Hong Kong

Per Xinhua, the first confirmed case of H1N1 swine flu has been detected in Hong Kong, prompting Chinese officials to shut down flights from Mexico to Shanghai, the travel route of the confirmed victim.

BBC adds that 300 people at the Hong Kong hotel the man was staying at are being quarantined and police wearing masks are guarding the hotel.

Twitterers in Hong Kong provided context about the impact of the case:

  1. Actress4life_hk_陳靖允
    Actress4life_hk (Hong Kong) The frist swine flu case just happened in Hong Kong..!!This is also the frist day of Golden week holiday a long weekend in HK!...Bad!!!
  2. Jane Cornelius
    HotJaney (Hong Kong) There's just been a confirmed case of Swine flu in Wan Chai in Hong Kong 2 hours ago. Everybody is wearing masks.
  3. Darius Naraghi
    ruisi1 (Hong Kong) Swine flu has hit the shores of Hong Kong! People here are ready to party like it's 2003. Bust out the masks and pass the sanitizer!

One Twitterer used the incident to voice frustration with mainland China.

  1. victor steve
    victorsteve (Hong Kong) the mainland chinese continue to bestow gifts on hong kong... they sent the first swine flu case across the border just yesterday...

Here's some other initial reaction from Hong Kong Twitter users:

  1. Andre Martin
    AndreMartin (Hong Kong) Either the Hong Kong hotel with a swine flu infected guest has also been sealed off communications or there is just no Twitter user inside..
  2. Bryan Ng
    icycoldice (Hong Kong) Nooo!!! Swine Flu in Hong Kong, now waiting for the schools to close down.
  3. Kayla Webley
    kaylawebley (Hong Kong) 1st case of swine flu reported in Asia is in Hong Kong, in my neighborhood nonetheless. 300 people quarantined. Time to break out the mask?
  4. Caitlin M Kerrigan
    caitlinx852 (Hong Kong) can't believe this swine flu [expletive] is in hong kong :(
    what a bad summer this is going to be!


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