UPDATE 2-Man quarantined after Hong Kong's first preliminary positive test for Wuhan virus

(Recasts with health ministry comments)
By Felix Tam
HONG KONG, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Hong Kong quarantined a
39-year-old man on Wednesday after the city's first preliminary
positive result in a test for the new flu-like coronavirus found
in an outbreak in central mainland China, authorities said.
The tourist from Wuhan came to Hong Kong on Tuesday via
high-speed rail from nearby Shenzhen and was detected having
fever at the border. He was in stable condition in an isolation
ward at Princess Margaret Hospital, Health Minister Sophia Chan
said.
The outbreak has spread to more Chinese cities including the
capital Beijing, Shanghai and Macau, and cases have been
reported outside the country's borders, in the United States,
South Korea, Thailand and Japan.
Nine people in China have died. "I urge citizens not to go to Hubei province, Wuhan city if
not necessary," Chan said in a news conference.
She said the isolated patient came to Hong Kong with four
family members, who spent the night at a hotel in the busy Tsim
Sha Tsui tourist district, before hopping on a flight to Manila
earlier on Wednesday.
His family did not have any symptoms. The government was
contacting train passengers who sat near him and they would be
put under observation in isolation wards. A hotline was also set
up for people worried they might have contracted the virus.
Chan could not immediately confirm local media reports of a
second person with similar test results.
The Hospital Authority on Tuesday enhanced laboratory
surveillance for pneumonia cases to include patients with travel
history to all of mainland China, rather than just Wuhan.
Hong Kong had deployed temperature screening equipment at
the airport and the high-speed rail station. Air passengers are
required to fill in health declaration forms. Some 500 isolation
wards at public hospitals were available, with more ordinary
wards to be converted if necessary.
Coronaviruses are a family of viruses named because of
crown-like spikes on their surfaces. The viruses cause
respiratory illnesses ranging from the common cold to the deadly
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
Hong Kong was badly hit by the SARS virus in 2003 and has
had many episodes of H5N1 bird flu for more than a decade.
According to WHO figures, 1,755 people in Hong Kong contracted
the SARS virus at the time and 299 died.
The SARS virus remains engrained in Hong Kongers' memory.
Many of the city's residents wear surgical masks often,
shopping malls provide sanitizers at receptions, staff at office
buildings and condominiums clean door handles and elevator
buttons several times a day.
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd will allow all crew
members and frontline employees to wear surgical masks and said
passengers to and from Wuhan could change or cancel flights for
free through Feb. 15.