HONG KONG - THE first confirmed case of swine flu in Asia was recorded in Hong Kong on Friday after a Mexican man who arrived via Shanghai tested positive, Chief Executive Donald Tsang announced.

Guests and staff at the hotel where the patient had briefly stayed were placed under quarantine for seven days as officials announced 'draconian' measures in a bid to contain the disease.

Police wearing face masks cordoned off the Metropark Hotel and a group of blue-gowned and masked health workers was seen entering the hotel in the bustling bar and nightclub district on Hong Kong island. Health Secretary York Chow said guests and staff at the hotel would be quarantined for seven days. ... more BEIJING - CHANCES are growing that the swine flu virus spreading around the world will enter mainland China, the country's health minister said on Friday, as he urged the country to prepare for an outbreak. The Chinese territory of Hong Kong announced on Friday that it had detected swine flu in a person who recently arrived there, in Asia's first confirmed case of the disease. ... more

'We have our first confirmed swine flu case in Hong Kong. He is Mexican,' Mr Tsang told reporters.

The 25-year-old Mexican arrived in Hong Kong on Thursday from Mexico via Shanghai on China Eastern Airlines flight 505, Mr Tsang said.

He was admitted to hospital on Thursday night suffering from a fever and tested positive on Friday for swine flu. He was in stable condition, Mr Tsang said.

The Metropark Hotel in Wanchai district where he had been staying had been cordoned off, he said.

'I will raise the alert level from serious to emergency,' the chief executive said.

Despite putting Hong Kong on the highest level of alert, Mr Tsang said all social activities and exhibitions would go ahead as normal and schools would remain open in the city, which is still scarred by memories of the Sars epidemic in 2003.

'I stress we don't need to panic,' he said. -- AFP