A China-wide hunt was under way last night for more than 60 airline passengers and hotel guests who may have been in contact with a swine flu sufferer from Mexico now in isolation in a Hong Kong hospital.
The man, who travelled to the city via Shanghai, is the first person in Hong Kong diagnosed with the new flu strain, which is thought to have killed more than 100 people in North America since last month and has spread to 16 countries.
Some 300 staff and guests at the hotel where he stayed briefly before going to hospital - the Metropark in Wan Chai - have been confined there for a week under quarantine. But at least 50 guests who were out when the swine flu infection was confirmed are being sought.
While efforts continued to find them, as well as 18 of the passengers yet to be traced from the AeroMexico flight the man took to Shanghai on Thursday, there were signs the flu may not be as serious as feared.
Mexico, where most of the swine flu infections have occurred, cut its estimate of the death toll to 101, from 176. Fewer patients were checking into hospitals with severe flu symptoms, suggesting the rate of infection was declining, authorities said.
US experts said the flu strain lacked the characteristics that made the flu which caused a 1918 pandemic so deadly, killing tens of millions.
Secretary for Education Michael Suen Ming-yeung said there was no need to close schools at this stage. And Hongkongers shrugged off fears about attending public gatherings. Sixty thousand thronged Cheung Chau for the island's annual bun festival.
