The coronavirus is taking in ghosts of the past to Hong Kong. Still, the city is ready to deal with the virus, said the Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam during a conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
First discovered less than a month ago, the new virus of coronavirus family has killed approximately 18 people and infected more than 650 patients worldwide. In China – where a total of 639 cases have been confirmed so far – major cities are on quarantine and Lunar New Year celebrations have been dropped down.
“Hong Kong has learned from its past,” Lam told the audience during an informal event at the WEF on Thursday. She added that “We have already paid a huge price for this deadly disease that we faced 17 years ago, and since then we grew a robust and resilient system.”
In 2003, the city went through an outbreak of SARS. In less three months, over 1,750 cases reported, and 286 people died of the illness, severe acute respiratory syndrome, according to information provided by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
“I’m cautiously confident that the system we have built … will get us of this current situation,” Lam suggested.
She also demonstrated that there are isolation wards in medical facilities that are ready. According to her, two cases of coronavirus have been confirmed so far in Hong Kong.
