The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's health authorities Friday evening have lifted a quarantine on the Metropark Hotel in Wanchai, Hong Kong.

A total of 286 people in the hotel were held under quarantine after a 25-year-old Mexican was confirmed to have influenza A/H1N1 on May 1 and stayed in the hotel in Hong Kong.

At about 8: 15 a.m. windows of the hotel previously covered with cloth were removed and the guests came out of the site 15 minutes later.

Some representatives from the Metropark showed up at the hotel entrance and cheered for the confined staff and guests.

The scene has attracted a large crowd of media and passers-by there, including a local resident Miss Chan, who told Xinhua that it was important for the government to take such a move in order to prevent the disease from spreading.

Among those guests who will continue their stay in Hong Kong, about 100 will move to the City Garden Hotel located in North Point, while some 50 others will lodge in the Royal Plaza Hotel in Mongkok as arranged by the Hong Kong government.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang Friday evening went to inspect the hotel and made a remark, saying that the quarantine arrangement was over and the hotel guests have left.

He expressed his thanks to personnel who worked for the quarantine period and the guests who were put under the quarantine and hoped that they will visit Hong Kong soon.

(Xinhua News Agency May 9, 2009)