Hong Kong praises China for efforts to control new coronavirus

Public health experts in Hong Kong said Tuesday that Chinese authorities have responded to latest outbreak of a new coronavirus much more quickly this time around.

Gabriel Leung, dean of medicine at University of Hong Kong, says speed and extent of response should severely limit spre of virus both within China and overseas.

"Our underlying assumptions are, force of infection is very different w... because so many public health measures have been undertaken and so many interventions have been executed," he said.

Leung, who was deeply involved in SARS response, said he felt a very strong sense of deja vu, except timescale this time has been compressed.

Leung says modelling shows that number of cases will continue to multiply over coming weeks, but that outbreak will grually lose momentum as measures take effect.

"Keeping things open transparent and releasing it at first possible moment. And that is what we're doing and I think that is in everybody's interest," said Leung, who is also founding director of World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control.