Hong Kong ends travel warning against South Korea after country deemed Mers-free
Hong Kong yesterday formally lifted the red travel alert on South Korea, after the Department of Health declared the Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) outbreak was under control.
The city lowered its response level for Mers from "serious" to "alert" and scrapped its travel alert - a more formal warning against non-essential journeys.
The decisions were made after health care institutions in South Korea detected no new cases within 28 days - twice the maximum incubation period. The last case was found on July 3.
"The number of new cases occurring in Korea each day has declined significantly since late June," a department spokesman said.
"The decline has coincided with much stronger contact tracing, monitoring and quarantine, suggesting that disease control measures in Korea are working."
Authorities put the "serious" response level in place on June 8 and issued the formal red travel alert a day after. From June 8 to Friday, 403 suspected cases were reported to the Centre for Health Protection, but all the patients tested negative for the virus.
South Korea had recorded 186 Mers cases, including 36 deaths, by Friday since an outbreak was declared in May. One of the cases was a man who was diagnosed in mainland China after travelling via Hong Kong.
The South Korean outbreak prompted the Hong Kong government to revise its system of issuing travel warnings to take into account not just security matters but also public health threats.
