Scientists in Hong Kong believe they have identified the virus behind a mystery pneumonia that has killed more than 50 people worldwide.
The Hong Kong government yesterday ordered schools in the city to close. Hong Kong Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee-hwa, said the government had invoked a quarantine law not used for decades, and anyone breaking it would be fined or jailed.
A group of microbiologists from the University of Hong Kong said a new strain from the family of coronaviruses, which are the second leading cause of colds in humans, was to blame.
A day after Singapore took similar action, Mr Tung said schools would shut for a week from tomorrow to try to contain a rapidly spreading pneumonia that has infected about 1,300 in Asia, North America and Europe.
He said those exposed to the virus must not go to work or school and must go to a clinic every day to be checked and, if found to be ill, to be isolated.
Eleven people have died in Hong Kong from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and 370 are infected. The government said the quarantine would affect more than 1,600 people.
"They must not go to work or to school for 10 days or they will be punished," Mr Tung said, as anxiety grew in the city of seven million and tourists cancelled holidays. Those who flout the orders will be fined up to HK$5,000 (€600) or possibly jailed for up to six months.
The Rolling Stones postponed two concerts scheduled for this weekend in Hong Kong.
The disease is believed to have started in southern China last November and spread to Singapore, Vietnam, Canada, Germany, Japan, the United States, France and Britain. "Forget about Scud missiles and smart bombs, we could all die if someone with the disease merely coughs," said Ms Shirley Li, a Hong Kong mother who sent her son to school in a surgical mask.
Deutsche Bank economists said the outbreak could cut Hong Kong's gross domestic product growth by 0.4 percentage points this year, and cut retail sales and hotel revenues by 2 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. Critics and some medical experts in Hong Kong criticised the government's moves as too late, saying the virus had already been spreading in the community, making it virtually impossible to find everyone who might have been exposed.
The latest virus finding, confirmed by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, will allow doctors to diagnose the disease much faster.
"It appears to us the coronavirus is the primary cause of the disease," scientist Mr Malik Peirius told reporters. "It is possible of course that other viruses might also infect the same patient and might increase the severity of the disease." Peirius said the new strain was unlike any known human or animal virus.
Southern China, crowded with humans and livestock and historically the source of many new virus strains, has been identified as the most likely source of the disease. Compounding fears in Hong Kong was mainland China's announcement on Wednesday that a pneumonia outbreak there was far worse than previously thought, with 31 people dead in southern Guangdong province bordering Hong Kong, and about 800 infected.- (Reuters)