Hong Kong - Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang apologized Tuesday to more than 200 guests quarantined for seven days in a hotel where East Asia's first swine-flu patient stayed.

Tsang issued his apology as the guests along with 100 staff at the Metropark Hotel entered their fifth day of quarantine under the guard of armed police and medics in protective clothing.

However, he claimed the lock-in was justified and made it clear the quarantine would remain in place for a full week before the guests and employees are allowed to leave.

The four-star hotel was put under quarantine Friday evening when a Mexican man who stayed there was confirmed as having the H1N1 strain of the virus. He has since recovered.

Tsang offered "thanks and apologies" to the quarantined visitors Tuesday, saying: "You are our guests. You are supposed to be here to enjoy yourselves, visit friends and do business.

"We can appreciate the boredom, frustration and dissatisfaction that the quarantine may have caused you. We don't want to see that either."

However, he added: "To contain a virus which we don't know much about, there is a need for strict action when we discover the first case. This is for the protection of your as much as the Hong Kong people's health."

The weeklong quarantine has been criticized by some guests and by infection diseases expert Lo Wing-lok, who argued it was pointless and "just for show."

At the weekend, each guest was given a letter of apology and a box of chocolates from the Hong Kong health secretary. They have also been promised free tickets to a range of attractions, including Hong Kong Disneyland.

One guest described the gifts as useless. "When we get out, we all just want to go straight home to our friends and families," he said. "We certainly won't be hanging around to visit Disneyland."

Ninety people, apart from the Mexican man, have been tested and cleared of swine flu in Hong Kong since last week.

Hong Kong's reaction came in the wake of the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which killed nearly 300 people and infected around 1,800 when it spread to Hong Kong from southern China through an infected patient who stayed at a Hong Kong hotel. (dpa)