Update | Hong Kong orders 18 into quarantine after Korean traveller is diagnosed with Mers
Search continues for dozens more people who were in close contact with Korean confirmedto be first case of the deadly disease in China
Hong Kong was on high alert yesterday as 18 people were ordered to undergo quarantine and scores more were being traced after coming into contact with a Korean man who was confirmed as China's first Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) patient.
Three others were admitted to Princess Margaret Hospital with mild respiratory symptoms after coming into contact with the index patient, who flew into Hong Kong from Seoul on Asiana Airlines flight OZ723 on Tuesday and took buses to Sha Tau Kok and Huizhou, Guangdong.
All three tested negative for Mers.
The Centre for Health Protection and the Hospital Authority announced yesterday that the 44-year-old Korean man had been confirmed by the mainland's National Health and Family Planning Commission as the first case of the killer virus in the country.
But officials urged the public not to panic.
"The virus does not transmit human-to-human sustainedly. Therefore, there would not be a major outbreak now," said Centre for Health Protection controller Dr Leung Ting-hung.