Provinces and cities put visitors from Hong Kong in quarantine Quarantine measures for travellers from Hong Kong and other areas affected by Sars have been introduced in parts of Shanghai, Hainan and Hunan, as mainland cities and provinces step up measures to prevent the spread of the disease. Guangxi is even said to have placed a ban on visitors from Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou and Sichuan, according to a hotel manager in the province. The news came as seven deaths yesterday brought Hong Kong's toll to 157, with 17 more infections. Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa has asked the central government to clarify the quarantine measures adopted by the local authorities. Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday that unauthorised measures taken by local authorities would be corrected. He said Hong Kong people were welcome on the mainland. Yesterday the mainland reported 166 new cases, bringing the total to 3,460. There were 11 more deaths, of which nine were in the capital - bringing the total to 159. Of the new cases, 101 were in Beijing. In Shanghai, according to a circular issued by the Tourism Bureau of Changning district on Monday, visitors from areas affected by Sars, including Hong Kong, Guangdong, Taiwan, Singapore and Toronto, will be put in 14-day quarantine in the district's hotels. Changning, close to the domestic Hongqiao Airport, is home to several luxury hotels including the Sheraton and the Renaissance. 'The visitors will have to stay in their hotels for medical observation,' an official from Changning's Sars prevention office said. Under orders from authorities, hotels in the northern Zhabei district have also started to confine arriving guests. Deputy Secretary General of the Shanghai municipal government Xue Peijian yesterday declined to confirm if the move was city-wide. 'We have noticed some units are doing it this way. We are now studying how to find a specific operating method,' he said. Tang Ching-wai, Hong Kong Trade Development Council's representative in Shanghai, said Pudong and Xuhui district in the city had also imposed quarantine on visitors from Sars-affected areas. The 14-day quarantines are also applied on Shanghai residents returning from infected areas. All Shanghai hotels are already required to take the temperatures of arriving guests. Hotels must place customers from affected areas on special floors, take their temperatures daily and watch for any symptoms of Sars though they can leave their rooms. Industry officials said the stricter measures could cause even greater economic losses for the sector, which was already reeling from Sars. 'This is very, very draconian. It shows how little confidence the authorities have in their airport screening system,' said an executive at one five-star hotel. Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph Tung Yao-chung said a Hong Kong businessman complained to him that he was turned away by many hotels when he arrived in Shanghai on Tuesday. The traveller finally stayed at his friend's home. 'Business travellers will be seriously disturbed by the new measure. We call on Hong Kong people to avoid travelling to the mainland for the time being,' Mr Tung said, Thomas Chan, a Hong Kong resident who visited his aunt in Wenchang, Hainan province last week, said four public security officials there came to his aunt's home last Friday and told him to leave the island within 24 hours. 'One of the four officers said I had to go because I came from Hong Kong which was affected by Sars. He said Hainan authorities did not want the virus exported to the island,'' Mr Chan said. A spokeswoman for Hainan said authorities had imposed the 14-day quarantine on returning residents and travellers, but added 'It was wrong for the public security officials in Wenchang to expel the Hong Kong traveller. Instead, they should have put him in home confinement.'
