Wuhan pneumonia: Hong Kong set to develop new test for mystery virus after obtaining genetic sequence from mainland China

A team of experts will also fly over to the mainland city to be briefed on the situation and learn about control measures

News comes after China confirms first death from novel coronavirus strain

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A man in a mask walks outside the West Kowloon terminus of the high-speed rail in Hong Kong, with trains to the mainland city of Wuhan, where a new form of pneumonia has gripped the population. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Published: 8:35pm, 12 Jan 2020Updated: 4:49pm, 22 Jan 2020

Hong Kong is set to race against time to develop diagnostic tests for the mystery strain of pneumonia that has claimed its first fatality on the mainland, after the city obtains the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus from Chinese authorities.

A team of Hong Kong experts, meanwhile, will on Monday fly to Wuhan – ground zero of the outbreak – in Hubei province to meet health officials there and get first-hand information on the disease and control measures implemented.

The latest development came as Hong Kong’s public hospitals reported seven more suspected cases.

The seven comprised two boys aged eight and 13, a 10-year-old girl, a man and three women, aged 38 to 67. All had been to the mainland city in the past two weeks and developed fever, respiratory infection or pneumonia symptoms.

None of them had visited wet markets there.

The patients were sent to six hospitals – Queen Elizabeth, United Christian, Queen Mary, Eastern, Tuen Mun, and Prince of Wales.

The wholesale seafood market in Wuhan where the virus is thought to have spread. Photo: Simon Song

The Centre for Health Protection in Hong Kong confirmed on Sunday that it had received notification from China’s National Health Commission that it had shared with the World Health Organisation the genetic sequence of the new coronavirus.

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