Hong Kong to quarantine arrivals from all foreign countries amid coronavirus scare

In a bid to protect Hong Kong from the grip of the deadly novel coronavirus, the travellers arriving in Hong Kong from any foreign country from Thursday onwards will be put under a 14-day medical surveillance. The order was passed by Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Tuesday, while she extended a red travel alert to cover all overseas nations.

Lam reportedly said on Tuesday that the decision was made after top officials met expert advisers and joined hands to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus in the city after they found the number of cases abroad had exceeded the total in mainland China.

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Hong Kong on high alert

This new initiative, however, would not apply to travellers arriving from Macau or Taiwan. The passengers travelling from mainland China were required to isolate at home since last month. The Chief Executive also announced that resuming school classes from April 20 seems “quite impossible” and the government would continue to not organise any large-scale events till the specific time period.

Giving a brief about the cases, she informed that most of the confirmed cases in the previous two weeks in Hong Kong involved patients who had recently travelled abroad. The new cases took the city’s tally to 158, while the death toll stood at four.  While announcing the new measure, Lam did not reveal a date as to for how long will the things get stable. 

Prolong Battle 

Terming the conditions as a battle that needs to be fought with the deadly outbreak, Lam said this will be a prolonged battle. 
Residents need to be psychologically prepared that it will be hard for us to completely control the outbreak within a short time.  When asked why a travel ban had not been imposed in Hong Kong, the Chief Executive said that the results would be "too drastic."

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