Hong Kong recorded its first case of monkeypox, in a 30-year-old man who was quarantining in a hotel and had symptoms of the disease, health officials announced Tuesday.
The man had arrived in Hong Kong on Monday, and like all travelers arriving in the autonomous territory, he had to isolate himself in a hotel for three days, as part of the "zero covid" strategy against the coronavirus pandemic.
According to one of the health officials, Edwin Tsui, the patient was unwell and was hospitalized.
He has not had any contact with the local population and was classified as an "imported case," added the official, who assured that the risk that he had infected Hong Kong residents in the meantime was "very low."
The man had been in the United States for most of August. At the end of the month, he spent a week in Canada and then passed through the Philippines before arriving in Hong Kong.
During the week prior to his hospitalization, he had presented symptoms such as skin rashes, swollen lymph nodes and a sore throat, according to health officials.
Hong Kong will raise its alert level for monkeypox and notify the World Health Organization (WHO) and mainland China of such a case, officials said.
