Hong Kong preps harder against Novel Coronavirus

More hospital staff being trained to handle deadly new virus.

Despite the absence of a single confirmed human case of the Novel Coronavirus in East Asia, Hong Kong has begun alerting and training employees at hospitals and clinics and training airport staff to identify possible cases.

Senior government officials held a simulation last week to practice managing the quarantine and treatment of patients if a single person infected with the new virus arrived at the Hong Kong International Airport and began spreading it.

The Health Department said it would stay vigilant and continue to work closely with the World Health Organization and other overseas health authorities to monitor the latest development of this novel infectious disease.

The Hong Kong government’s early measures reflect a continued concern with public health following the trauma of the SARS epidemic of 2003 that killed 299 Hong Kong residents.

“At the moment, I think Hong Kong is likely to be the one with the strongest border control against this new virus for obvious historical reasons,” said Dr. Yuen Kwok-yung, chairman of the infectious diseases section of the microbiology department at Hong Kong University.

Hong Kong University researchers are seriously concerned about the Novel Coronavirus that emerged in the Middle East. The main worry about the Novel Coronavirus is that it appears deadlier and has killed over half of the people with confirmed cases.

The new virus also infects a wider range of human tissue types than the SARS virus and kills them more quickly.