China coronavirus: panic sweeps through Hong Kong business district after medical staff in full protective gear are seen taking woman to waiting ambulance
- Family of three arrived on Wednesday from mainland Chinese city of Wuhan, the source of deadly outbreak
- Staff at eye clinic they were attending tested them and found woman had relatively high body temperature
Panic swept through Hong Kong’s central business district on Thursday when a woman from the mainland Chinese city at the centre of the deadly coronavirus infection was seen being taken to hospital in an ambulance.
Images of medical staff in full protective gear walking along a street in Central with a woman and a child quickly went viral, sparking fears of a potential outbreak in the community.
The woman and her family, who arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday by high-speed rail, were in the city to take their child to an optometrist in the Central Building on Queen’s Road Central.
Dennis Lam Shun-chiu, the popular ophthalmologist who founded C-Mer Eye Care Holdings, said the woman was at his clinic along with her husband and their child, when staff decided to check their body temperatures as a safety measure.
The woman’s body temperature was found to be relatively high, and the three were sent to hospital. The clinic has opted to close for two days to undergo a thorough cleaning.