Novel coronavirus to be gazetted as notifiable

September 27, 2012

Legislative preparations are underway to include the novel coronavirus as a notifiable infectious disease under the law, the Centre for Health Protection announced today, adding that legislative amendments will be gazetted tomorrow with immediate effect.
 
Under the amendments, "Severe Respiratory Disease associated with Novel Coronavirus" will be added to the list of infectious diseases specified in Schedule 1 as a statutorily notifiable disease, and the virus to the list of infectious agents in Schedule 2 under the Prevention & Control of Disease Ordinance.
 
With the amendments, medical practitioners are required to notify the Director of Health if they have reason to suspect the existence of the disease, and people in charge of a laboratory are required to report any leakage of the virus that may pose a public health risk.
 
The Director of Health can also exercise his power to institute border control measures for travellers.
 
The centre will issue letters to doctors and the medical laboratory sector to inform them of the legislative amendments.
 
Meanwhile, the centre said five patients in a Denmark hospital do not have novel coronavirus but an influenza B infection, keeping the total number of laboratory confirmed cases of novel coronavirus worldwide at two.