Accepting Confinement For 'Greater Good'

香港湾仔维景酒店的宾客周日收到了一份贴心的礼物：每个房间一盒高迪瓦(Godiva)巧克力。酒店派发的香波口罩报纸和洗衣粉随巧克力一起附上的还有一张字条：给您带来诸多不便，敬请接受我诚挚的歉意。您得到了我们香港民众的极大尊重，我们由衷地向您表达谢意。字条署名是香港特区政府食物及卫生局局长周一岳。香港政府对维景酒店住客实施为期七天的强制隔离，这就是字条中谈到的不便。收到巧克力的住客们很不幸的和那名被确诊为甲型H1N1流感患者的25岁墨西哥人下榻在同一家酒店。疫情 诊后，香港政府上周五对湾仔维景酒店的所有人员实施了严格隔离。这家四星级酒店的不远处就是香港酒吧和夜店的聚集之地。那名墨西哥甲型H1N1流感患者目前正在一家医院接受隔离治疗。目前在墨西哥美国加拿大新西兰和其他发现新流感疫情的地区，有关部门都已经督促患者以及和患者接触过的人员继续隔离，以避免疫情扩散。香港选择了实施强制隔离，这主要是非典型肺炎(SARS)给香港带来的痛苦经历所致。当时，香港有299人死亡，1,755人感染。同样遭受非典重创的中国大陆此次也对数十名抵达中国进行度假和商务旅行的墨西哥人实施了隔离。香港爆发非典疫情以及随后扩散到其他国家可以追溯到一名来港的患病大陆游客。那名游客当时住宿的酒店是九龙的京华国际酒店(Metropole)，而这家酒店恰巧随后改名为维景酒店。香港议员后来批评卫生部门官员未能及时实施隔离以避免疫情扩散。六年之后，在香港政府“下不为例”的政策下，湾仔维景酒店的大约240名住客陷入了隔离之中。在酒店外面，带着医疗口罩的警察驻守在酒店入口，附近通道都拉上了黄色的警戒线。在最初的24小时的时间里，大批记者和电视摄像师徘徊在酒店大堂的玻璃窗附近。一名带面罩的酒店住客将一张手写字条举到大堂窗户上，字条上面写着：我们需要啤酒食品和香烟，用这些来交换信息。在酒店内部，政府官员和医疗人员每隔几个小时就进行流感检测，并测量住客的体温。那些发烧的住客被带到一家医院进行进一步检测。目前还没有其他人被检测出感染病毒。点击图片阅读《隔离日记 2009年5月4日》Getty Images27岁的施雯婧是一位来自上海的翻译，她也被隔离在了这家酒店中隔离引发了一些紧张状况。据酒店内的几个人透露，医疗人员上周六早间和酒店住客见面，回答了他们的一些问题。来自印度德里的45岁服装出口商艾尔兰德(Kevin Ireland)参加了这次会面，他回忆到，当时有一名韩国人说，他的旅行同伴身体有问题，只有一些心脏药物，把他隔离在酒店可能对同伴的健康很危险。27岁的上海翻译施雯婧也住在维景酒店。她回忆到，那名韩国人变得越来越激动。她说，那个人向卫生部门官员咆哮，坚持说他应该被解除隔离。施雯婧和艾尔兰都记得，那个韩国人对卫生部门官员说，如果发生什么事，我就杀了你！但其他人表示，他们接受隔离生活是为了集体的利益。32岁的法国人马伊埃(David Mahiet)是维景酒店的客人。上周五晚间开始实施隔离的时候他不在酒店里。他入住了另外一家酒店。在与法国领事馆人员交谈后，马伊埃周六决定回到维景酒店接受隔离。上周六他返回酒店房间后说：直接回到酒店检查我是否感染了流感对我的健康更有益，对香港也更有益。他在房间里可以抽烟看电视上网，还有等待。一些人对提供的食物不满意。酒店客人说，他们早餐有圆面包牛奶或饮用水；中午会有人送来简单的午餐，包括咖哩米饭或通心粉。因此，叫外卖的人很多。客人要求把餐点送到酒店里，可以看到警方人员在酒店大堂入口处整理订餐单。艾尔兰给必胜客(Pizza Hut)打了电话，和一些朋友开了场皮萨加啤酒的聚会，其中包括和他一道旅行的三名西班牙人。不过，马伊埃说，法国客人的享受更高一筹。法国驻香港领事馆安排人送来了芥末烤鸡等法式菜肴。马伊埃说，对法国人来说，这非常非常好。一些客人对隔离的安排提出疑问，担心已经感染的客人可能会将疾病传染给没有感染的客人。艾尔兰说，如果你被隔离，那意味着他们认为你有一种很容易传播的传染性疾病。但客人们都在大堂里走来走去，到各个房间串门，似乎没有什么规范。周一，在湾仔维景酒店隔离的游客和相关官员开会施雯婧甚至还听说，有人计划周二在大堂为一位法国客人开生日聚会。但她说，我估计我不会去，因为最好能避免公共接触。在周一下午的一个会议上，一批客人要求官方放他们出去，因为医院的病毒检测结果显示他们是阴性。马伊埃说，他和其他一些客人大声让这些人别闹了，官方人士解释说，所有客人都必须呆在这里接受一个完整的隔离期，因为研究人员称这种新型流感病毒最多可能潜伏7天。马伊埃说，只要你还有点脑子，你就能理解目前的形势。目前尚未做到完全隔离。截至周一，当局表示还有40-50人下落不明。警方正在继续查找那些有可能躲在朋友那里或者住在其他酒店的人。但是，一些原本认为他们可以逃脱追查的人想错了。比如南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿商业地产开发商63岁的彼得•加农(Pete Cannon)。他是上周入住维景酒店的。上周五晚上，他返回酒店时发现穿着防护服的警察和医疗人员包围了酒店。他没有进去接受隔离，而是将护照号码交给这些人，然后到另一家酒店过了一夜。第二天，他要到中国大陆地区见个朋友。他说：当我到达边境口岸的时候，他们问了我护照号码。然后他们让整个火车站停下来，护送我出来。在测试结果显示他没有问题之后，他被带到另外一处隔离点，它设在位于香港新界郊区的一处政府经营的建有平房的度假区里。他说，我感觉自己就像电影《胜利大逃亡》(The Great Escape)里的麦奎因(Steve McQueen)。不论他逃到哪里，最后还是会被带回战俘营。香港官员表示，他们正在尽最大努力让7天的隔离期更容易度过。周一，接受隔离的客人又收到一封信，是香港商务及经济发展局局长刘吴惠兰(Rita Lau)写来的。她在信中写到：我们期待着欢迎你和你的家人及朋友再来香港。Jonathan Cheng / Peter Stein（更新完成）相关阅读亚洲经济受流感冲击风险最大 2009-05-05原声视频：中国否认隔离墨西哥旅客存歧视 2009-05-05中国隔离墨西哥人 两国关系或现裂痕 2009-05-04新流感威胁冲击香港 2009-05-04儿童更易感染甲型H1N1流感病毒 2009-05-04


Guests at the Metropark Hotel received a thoughtful gift Sunday: a box of Godiva chocolates sent to each room.'Please accept my profuse apologies for the horrendous inconvenience,' a note accompanying the sweets read. 'You have earned tremendous respect from us Hong Kong people, and we would like to say thank you, from the bottom of our heart.' It was signed by York Chow, Hong Kong's secretary for food and health.The inconvenience in question is a seven-day-long involuntary confinement in the hotel. Recipients of the chocolate had the bad luck to share the same residence as a 25-year-old Mexican who tested positive for the new A/H1N1 flu virus, also known as human swine flu. The confirmation prompted authorities here Friday to impose a strict quarantine on everyone else staying at the four-star lodging in Wanchai, a short walk from a handful of popular bars and strip clubs. The Mexican flu victim is being treated in isolation at a hospital.In Mexico, the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and other places where the new flu strain has appeared, authorities have urged patients and those in contact with them to remain isolated to prevent the infection from spreading. Hong Kong opted to make the isolation mandatory. This is because of Hong Kong's painful experience with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which killed 299 people in the territory and sickened 1,755. Mainland China, which was also badly hit by SARS, has imposed its own quarantines on dozens of Mexicans arriving in the country on holiday and business trips.The Hong Kong SARS outbreak -- and the spread of the disease to other countries as well -- could be traced back to a single infectious guest from China who stayed at a Hong Kong hotel: the Metropole in Kowloon, which coincidentally has changed its name to the Metropark. Hong Kong lawmakers later took health officials to task for failing to impose timely quarantines to keep the disease from spreading.Six years later, the 240 or so confined guests of the Wanchai Metropark have fallen victim to Hong Kong's 'never again' policy.Outside the hotel, policemen in clinical face masks stand guard at the hotel's entrance and at nearby crosswalks blocked by yellow police tape. In the first 24 hours or so, throngs of journalists and television cameramen hovered near the glass windows of the hotel lobby.One masked hotel guest held a handwritten sign up to the lobby window that read: 'We will exchange information for beer and food and cigarettes.'Inside the hotel, government staff and medical workers administer flu tests and check guests' temperatures every few hours. Those with fevers are taken away to a hospital for more testing. So far none have tested positive for the virus.The confinement has led to some tense moments. On Saturday morning, health workers met with guests to answer some of their questions, according to several in the hotel. A Korean man said that he had a traveling companion with a health condition and some heart medication, and that confining him there could be dangerous for his health, recalled Kevin Ireland, a 45-year-old Indian apparel exporter from Delhi who was at the meeting.Shi Wenjing, a 27-year-old translator from Shanghai, was there too. She remembers the man growing more and more agitated. 'He shouted loudly at the health officiers and insisted that he should be released,' she said. Both she and Mr. Ireland recall him telling the health officers that if anything happened, 'I'll kill you!'But others spoke of their resignation to life in confinement for the sake of the greater good.David Mahiet, a 32-year-old Frenchman and guest at the Metropark, was out of the hotel when the quarantine was imposed Friday night. He checked into another hotel. But after talking to staff at the French consulate, Mr. Mahiet decided Saturday to return to the Metropark to do his time.'It's better for my health and better for Hong Kong city for me to go directly in the hotel, to check if I have the swine flu,' he said Saturday after returning to his room, where he smokes cigarettes, watches TV, surfs the Internet and waits.Food is a complaint for some. Guests say they eat buns and milk or water for breakfast, and are brought simple lunches of rice and curry or spaghetti. So an active takeout business has sprung up. Guests order food delivered to the hotel, and policemen can be seen sorting out orders at the lobby entrance. Mr. Ireland called Pizza Hut and had a pizza and beer party with some of his friends, who include three Spaniards with whom he is traveling.French guests, however, have taken it up a notch: their local consulate has arranged for French dishes like poulet a la moutarde to be brought in, said Mr. Mahiet. 'For French people, this is very, very nice,' he noted.Some guests question the logic of the quarantine, concerned that infected guests could transmit the disease to those who aren't. 'If you're quarantined, that means they think you have an easily communicable disease that is easily passed on,' Mr. Ireland said. But guests mill around the lobby and go from room to room. 'There seems to be no protocol,' he said.Ms. Shi even heard that a party was planned in the lobby for Tuesday to celebrate a French guest's birthday. 'But I guess I won't go, since it's better to avoid public contact,' she said.At a meeting Monday afternoon, a group of guests pressed officials to let them go free since hospital tests showed them negative for the disease. Mr. Mahiet said that he and some other guests shouted the agitators down, and officials explained that all guests would have to stay under quarantine for the full period, since scientists say human swine flu can incubate for up to seven days.'If you have a brain, you understand the situation,' Mr. Mahiet said.The quarantine hasn't been totally effective. As of Monday, authorities said between 40 and 50 guests were still unaccounted for. Police were in pursuit of those who may be hiding out with friends or staying at other hotels. But some who thought they could escape the dragnet were mistaken.One was Pete Cannon, a 63-year-old commercial real-estate developer from Charleston, S.C. He checked into the Metropark last week. On Friday night, he returned to the hotel to find it surrounded by police and health workers clad in protective clothing. Instead of entering the quarantine, he gave the people his passport number and left to spend the night at another hotel.The next day, he went to meet a friend up in mainland China. 'When I got to the border, they had my passport number,' Mr. Cannon said. 'They stopped the whole train station to escort me out.'After tests found nothing wrong with him, he was taken to another quarantine site at a government-run holiday camp with bungalows in a rural section of Hong Kong's New Territories.'I feel like that guy in 'The Great Escape,' Steve McQueen,' he said. 'No matter where he goes, he's taken back to the camp.'Hong Kong officials said they are doing their very best to make the seven days tolerable. On Monday, guests under quarantine received another letter, this one from Rita Lau, Hong Kong's commerce secretary. In it, she wrote: 'We look forward to welcoming you back to Hong Kong with your family and friends.'Jonathan Cheng / Peter Stein