By Vir B. Lumicao
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| There are now 6 confirmed cases in Oi Fai House |
Health officials today, Apr 11, confirmed 13 new coronavirus patients, two of whom are local cases linked to an outbreak in a public housing estate in Tuen Mun. Of the 11 imported cases, five carried the dreaded N501Y variant.
The Centre for Health Protection said the two local cases, a 71-year-old male retiree and a 63-year-old housewife, were relatives who live in Unit 32, Block 3, Oi Fai House in You Oi Estate in Tuen Mun. The two were earlier classified as preliminary positive.
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The man developed a sore throat and fever on Apr 7 while the woman was asymptomatic. They brought to six the number of total infections from the housing block, which has been partially evacuated amid fears of environmental contamination.
The additional confirmed cases took the total tally in Hong Kong to 11,582.
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CHP said there were more than 10 preliminary positive cases.
In the past 14 days, a total of 123 new cases were recorded. Twenty-five of these were local cases, of which 10 were of unknown origin.
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Four of the five imported cases found to have the highly infectious coronavirus strain were two men aged 64 and 74 from Pakistan, and two men aged 28 and 41 from India, a CHP staff said.
She said the fifth patient with the variant was a man aged 25 Bangladesh who arrived on Mar 29 and tested positive on his 12th day of hotel quarantine.
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Among the new cases were two female domestic workers, an Indonesian aged 38 and an Indian aged 26, who both arrived last Friday, the spokeswoman said.
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| Two Indian patients in today's list flew via Vistara's suspended flight, UK6395 |
The other imported cases involved an Indonesian man aged 79 who arrived from Surabaya and two Indian men aged 37 and 29 who arrived from New Delhi on Apr 4 via Vistara SIA Flight UK6395.
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They developed symptoms on Apr 10 while in quarantine at Ramada Hong Kong Grandview Hotel in North Point.
The airline has already been suspended from flying to Hong Kong until Apr 19 after five of its passengers in a single flight had tested positive upon arrival.
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Air India, which had been banned at least six times in the past for the same reason, flew today’s four other infected passengers from New Delhi, including the two with N501Y variant.
The Hospital Authority said a total of 125 confirmed patients are now being treated in 21 public hospitals and the North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre. Seven of the patients are in critical condition, three are serious and the remaining 115 stable, the HA said.
Meanwhile, Prof David Hui from the
Hui, who is also a government adviser on the Covid-19 strategy, said that despite the drop in number of new cases in recent days, it is too early to ease anti-epidemic measures further, like capping the number of diners to four per table in restaurants.
He warned that any resurgence could dash
“We are only seeing sporadic cases, but unfortunately sometimes the cases are of unknown source, and this reflects there are still cases causing community transmission. So, at this stage I think it would be very difficult to relax all the social distancing measures,” he said.
“I think the government is keen to develop travel bubbles
and also open the border between Hong Kong and
Hui supported the government’s decision to shelve plans to procure a third
vaccine, saying
The government can
reserve the money for second-generation vaccines with a higher efficacy against
mutated virus strains, he said.
Health Secretary Sophia Chan has earlier said the government will postpone
shipments of AstraZeneca vaccines, the third brand being procured by
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