Restaurants linked to gastroenteritis cases off-limits on Hong Kong school trips
Authorities say cases reported from seven schools on student exchange tours to mainland China
Hong Kong education authorities have asked tour agencies organising school trips not to use certain restaurants in mainland China following recent acute gastroenteritis outbreaks among students and teachers who joined study visits across the border.
But the Education Bureau said on Wednesday that an initial investigation by mainland authorities suggested that the outbreaks were more likely to have been caused by tour members’ exposure to their daily contacts or vomit as no evidence was found to link the problem to food supplied during the trips.
The bureau announced the follow-up measures after the number of acute gastroenteritis cases in the past few weeks rose to at least 92, involving seven schools on different trips to Huangshan, Anhui in February and Shaoguan in Guangdong this month.
“According to preliminary investigations by relevant mainland authorities, the cases are most likely to have been transmitted through daily contact among group members or exposure to vomit,” the bureau said.
“There is currently no evidence that it is related to the meals arranged by the study tours.”
The bureau did not say if it was referring to all the recent tours or just the ones that took place this month.
As a precaution, the bureau said, it had immediately asked the host agencies to suspend the use of restaurants involved and that all meal suppliers for the study tours cease providing raw and cold food.