Hong Kong under quarantine as deadly SARS virus spreads

SCIENTISTS in Hong Kong yesterday said they had identified the virus behind a mystery pneumonia that has killed more than 50 people worldwide.

Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa said that the government had closed city schools and had also said the government had invoked a quarantine law not used for decades. Anyone breaking it can be fined or jailed for up to six months.

A day after Singapore took similar action, Tung said schools would shut for a week from March 29 to try to contain a rapidly-spreading pneumonia that has infected about 1,300 people in Asia, North America and Europe.

Tung said people those exposed to the virus should avoid work or school and instead go to a clinic for testing. Those found to be ill will be isolated.

Eleven people have died in Hong Kong from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and a further 370 are infected.

The government said the quarantine will affect more than 1,600 people.

"They must not go to work or to school for 10 days, or they will be punished," said Tung, as anxiety grew in the city of seven million residents, and tourists cancelled holidays.

Those who flout the orders will be fined up to 600, or possibly jailed for up to six months.

The Rolling Stones postponed two concerts scheduled for this weekend in Hong Kong.

A group of microbiologists from the University of Hong Kong said a new strain from the family of coronaviruses the second-leading cause of colds in humans was to blame.

The disease is believed to have started in southern China last November, and spreading to Singapore, Vietnam, Canada, Germany, Japan, the United States, France and Britain, forcing people to drop travel plans.

"Forget about Scud missiles and smart bombs, we could all die if someone with the disease merely coughs," said Shirley Li, a Hong Kong mother who sent her son to school in a surgical mask.

Deutsche Bank economists said the outbreak could cut Hong Kong's gross domestic product growth by 0.4% this year, as well as reducing retail sales and hotel revenues by 2% and 5% respectively.

Critics and some medical experts in Hong Kong slammed the government's moves as coming too late. Some say the virus has already been comprehensively spread throughout the community, making it virtually impossible to find everyone who might have been exposed.

The latest virus finding, confirmed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will allow doctors to diagnose the disease in patients much faster.

"It appears to us the coronavirus is the primary cause of the disease," scientist Malik Peirius told reporters.

"It is possible of course that other viruses might also infect the same patient, and might increase the severity of the disease."

Peirius said the new strain was unlike any known human or animal virus.

Southern China, a region crowded with humans and livestock, and historically the source of many new virus strains, has been identified as the most likely source of the disease.