- A 38-year-old woman with no travel history in past 14 days tests preliminarily positive for the virus
- Dr Ho Pak-leung of University of Hong Kong says city is not yet out of the woods, and outbreak could yet spread out of control
The Hong Kong government has extended work-from-home arrangements for civil servants to March 1, as a microbiologist said the city was not yet out of the woods in tackling the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
Dr Ho Pak-leung from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) on Thursday said the outbreak of the pathogen, which causes the disease Covid-19, could get out of control, as an initial test raised the spectre of a 66th case.
A medical source said a 38-year-old woman preliminarily tested positive for the virus.
The patient, who was being treated at United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong, had not travelled in the 14 days before she fell ill, the source said.
In a press statement, the government said it would continue with work-from-home arrangements to "reduce social contacts and the risk of the spread of the novel coronavirus in the community".
Emergency and essential public services, as well as basic and limited-scale ones, would continue. Government departments would prepare for the gradual resumption of normal services, and announce separately their latest service details as soon as possible, it said.
Microbiologist Ho told a radio programme on Thursday that the epidemic would be considered under control only when no new infections emerged for at least two weeks " the length of the virus's incubation period.
"(The epidemic) is definitely not under control. We even worry it will go out of control in some areas," he said.
A day earlier, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung drew fire for his comments during a Legislative Council special meeting that "the situation is under control".
Reacting to the minister's comments, Ho said: "If he said something wrong, he should admit it and clarify."
Cheung denied allegations from lawmakers that the city was slow in reacting to the epidemic.
At the Wednesday meeting, legislators vented their frustrations at the government's handling of the public health crisis. Pro-establishment member Alice Mak Mei-kuen said the government had failed to instil confidence in the public.
"The public is panic buying rice and toilet paper, and an official from another city said we were idiots," said Mak, of the pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions.
Ho on Thursday joined the chorus of criticism, saying the government still had not woken up to the crisis.
He said he was "shocked" the government still had not deployed a supercomputer for tracking those in contact with the patients, as the first confirmed case was reported about a month ago.
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"The virus will not wait. But members of the public see the government is waiting for the virus (to come) every day," he said.
Separately, the United States' Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a "Level 1" travel alert for Hong Kong after another patient died from the disease on Wednesday.
It advised visitors to avoid contact with sick people and wash their hands often, to stave off the virus.
Hubei province in mainland China, the epicentre of the outbreak, has a "Level 4" warning, which means no one should travel there, while the rest of mainland China has a "Level 3" alert, advising visitors to avoid non-essential travel.
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