Govt presser announces latest plans on those quarantined in flu scare

(6 May 2009) SHOTLIST 1. Wide shot government news conference on swine flu 2. Cutaway to photographer 3. Mid shot three officials at news conference 4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Adeline Wong, Hong Kong Deputy Director of Home Affairs: "On the day of departure, the Department of Health will first conduct a medical check on the quarantined, and, subject to satisfactory completion of medical check, a certificate of completion... of conclusion of quarantine... a certificate of conclusion of quarantine will be issued. And this certificate will certify that the quarantined has undergone quarantine and shown no symptom or sign of being infected with human swine influenza, or influenza A H1N1 during the quarantine period." 5. Reporters 6. SOUNDBITE: (English) York Chow, Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health: "The commander has issued a request form to everyone so that they will tell us where they would like to go after the quarantine is lifted. There are several places, one is the airport, the other is the two hotels that we offered to them, and thirdly is to our land borders, and fourthly is some of the public transport areas like MTR (Mass Transit Railway) stations and so on." 7. Reporters STORYLINE: In Hong Kong, the 283 guests and employees who have been in quarantine inside the downtown Metropark Hotel were on Wednesday entering the final stretch of their weeklong quarantine, which ends at 1230 GMT on Friday. The quarantined people will have to go through medical checks before they can leave the hotel, said the Hong Kong government on Wednesday. Hong Kong Deputy Director of Home Affairs, Adeline Wong, said that on the day of departure, the Department of Health would conduct medical checks on the individuals, and, subject to satisfactory completion, they would be issued with a "certificate of conclusion of quarantine". "This certificate will certify that the quarantined has undergone quarantine and shown no symptom or sign of being infected with human swine influenza, or influenza A H1N1 during the quarantine period," Wong added. Hong Kong's health chief, York Chow, said the quarantined would be offered a range of options for their onward journeys, including being taken to the airport, land borders or train stations. The flight arrived in Shanghai from Mexico last Thursday. After the 25-year-old man was diagnosed with swine flu in Hong Kong, officials scrambled to locate and quarantine the other 166 passengers and crew who had been on the flight. By Wednesday 1000GMT, Hong Kong had no new confirmed swine flu cases. Mexico has reported 840 of the nearly 1,600 confirmed cases of swine flu in 20 countries worldwide. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...