Apartment block residents in quarantine as virus spreads

HEALTH officials in Hong Kong have ordered the residents of an apartment block to be quarantined for 10 days in an effort to control a deadly new virus.

With the number of cases in the territory reported to be at least 622 yesterday, 213 have been linked to the Amoy Gardens housing estate in urban Kowloon where the block is situated.

Policemen and dozens of health workers in surgical masks, caps and coats are in the estate where the current residents of Block E said to number 700 have been ordered to stay at home until midnight on April 9.

The confined residents will receive health inspections and free meals from the government for the duration.

But many residents of the estate have already fled, raising fears that they could carry the virus to other parts of the community.

Estate residents have been speaking of their terror in the face of SARS, which some now believe to be airborne, rather than spread by droplets from sneezing or coughing.

"I'm scared. I'm taking my temperature every day," said one woman resident. "I stayed at home for several days. It's terrifying. I think I'll get it sooner or later."

The virus, known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), has infected more than 1,550 people and killed at least 54 worldwide since first surfacing in southern China in November.

Hong Kong officials have now confirmed 13 deaths from the mystery bug in the territory alone.

In other moves, the authorities have closed schools and ordered more than 1,000 friends and family members of patients to also be quarantined from yesterday.

Taiwan has quarantined at least 500 people in connection with SARS and is considering suspending travel links with China in an effort to stem the spread of the virus. The US Centre for Disease Control says SARS is caused by a Corona virus from the same family as that which causes the common cold.

However, a World Health Organisation official said yesterday that some work was still required to pin down the exact culprit.

Hitoshi Oshitani, WHO SARS coordinator, said: "I think we can identify the causative agent in quite a short time period. We think probably within a few days, at most a few weeks.

"But this doesn't mean we will find the specific treatment for this disease within the short time period."

Mr Oshitani said the virus causing the new disease apparently came from an animal.