Hong Kong tells South Korea city's summer flu season is over in hope travel warning will be dropped
The Hong Kong health authority alerted the South Korean health department that the summer peak for influenza ended in the city yesterday – in the hope that the country would drop a controversial travel warning.
On July 9, South Korea issued a blue warning – the lowest level on a scale of four warnings – over a flu outbreak in Hong Kong which claimed more than 100 lives this summer. Seoul’s announcement followed Hong Kong’s decision in June to issue a red-travel warning for South Korea, where Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) broke out, afflicting 186 people and killing 36.
Health Department officials in Hong Kong lifted the warning on Mers on August 1. A spokesman for the Centre for Health Protection said it had been “maintaining contact with the South Korean health officials since June, and provided them with detailed and updated flu data to clarify the situation” in Hong Kong.
He said influenza activity overall further declined last week, indicating the end of the summer season which lasted about eight weeks from mid-June. In total, 183 cases linked to influenza were reported in Hong Kong as serious and requiring intensive care. Of these, 133 people died.
The summer peak was milder in comparison to the winter peak earlier this year in which 657 serious cases were recorded, including 501 deaths.
Experts stated that South Korea’s travel warning arising from the flu and in place through the summer was unnecessary as the flu virus and Mers virus were not comparable.
