An alert has been activated in light of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome threat.
The government has announced contingency plans to prepare for MERS, which is a SARS-like virus emerging from the Middle East.
Under the Hong Kong Influenza Plan, there is a three-tier response system towards outbreaks – alert being the lowest response level, followed by serious and then emergency, the highest response level.
The government today announced an “alert” response level to MERS after a total of 663 confirmed cases of MERS were reported by the World Health Organisation, 570 of which are in Saudi Arabia where MERS first emerged, reports The Standard.
The first human case of MERS emerged two years ago and is said to be from the same coronaviruses family as SARS.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
