Hong Kong has stepped up efforts on monitoring body temperatures of in-bound passengers in light of a suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) case in Hong Kong's neighboring Guangdong Province.

Regina Ching, acting deputy director of Hong Kong's Department of Health, said at a press conference Sunday that Hong Kong's departments concerned have strengthened passengers' quarantine work as of Saturday after a suspected SARS case was reported in Guangdong.

She said since Saturday, a total of 530,000 passengers at the boundary check points have made health declarations and her department also took body temperature for them.

In addition, passengers at boundary check points were also chosen at random for forehead temperature to be taken since Saturday.

She said of the 530,000 passengers, 44 in-bound passengers from the Chinese mainland had fever or felt unwell.

She said five of the sick passengers were sent to hospital for treatment, and only two of them need hospitalization. One of them has gastro enteric problem while the other has respiratory system trouble.

She said that neither of their symptoms is SARS-like.

The Department of Health also set up a hotline (1872222) for consultation of SARS related inquiries.

It is reported that hospitals in Hong Kong have already announced the "yellow alert", which means that the suspected SARS case might affect Hong Kong to some extent and hospital representatives will hold meetings to discuss precautionary measures that might be taken in hospitals.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2003)