Concern over virus patient detection loopholes

Tthere are loopholes in epidemic prevention and Hong Kong lags behind in detecting infected people, an infectious diseases specialist says.

Dr Leung Chi-chiu, the head of the Hong Kong Medical Association advisory committee on communicable diseases, said that in many instances, there is a seven-day delay between the onset of the coronavirus symptoms and the diagnosis of the disease. During that gap people with symptoms could infected many others.

He said restaurants are a higher-risk virus transmission channel, and the epidemic must be controled before restrictions on dining-in are relaxed.

Coronavirus infections could further spread from cargo vessels that continue to arrive at Hong Kong container terminals, so the crew should be quarantined, he advised.