The SUN HK : US arrivals to spend a week in Penny's Bay after 5th Omicron case detected

By Daisy CL Mandap

All arrivals from the US will be quarantined at Penny's Bay for the first 7 days

The Centre for Health Protection has reported a fifth case of the Omicron variant being found in Hong Kong, and this time, it involved a man who came from the United States and tested positive on his arrival here on Dec 7.

As a result, the Hong Kong government has decided that from Monday, all inbound travelers from the US will spend the first seven days of their compulsory 21-day quarantine at Penny's Bay where they will get tested everyday. If they test negative, they will be allowed to spend the next 14 days in hotel quarantine.

This rule currently applies only to travelers from designated countries in southern and western Africa.

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The 37-year-old male patient with Omicron flew in on flight CX881 from Los Angeles and was asymptomatic. He had received two doses of the BioNTech vaccine in Hong Kong on Jun 2 and 25.

Despite being found infected with Covid-19, he also tested positive for antibodies after admission to hospital on Dec 7, but the Ct value was less than 20, indicating a heavy viral load.

A genome sequencing done by the Department of Health’s public laboratory confirmed he carried Omicron, which was recently listed by the World Health Organization as a variant of concern.

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Hong Kong had four other Omicron cases listed earlier. Two involved a man from South Africa infecting a fellow guest at Regal Airport Hotel (cases 12388 and 12404), while the two others had separately come from Nigeria (12432 and 12433).

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Meanwhile, four additional confirmed Covid-19 cases were reported by the CHP today, taking Hong Kong’s total tally to 12,483.

Three of the cases involved passengers who arrived on Dec 8 aboard flight CX764 from Vietnam, and tested positive on their arrival at Hong Kong Airport.

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Two of them are females aged 27 and 48, and the third is male, aged 57. All were fully vaccinated and asymptomatic, and carried the L452R mutant strain.

The lone male in the group left Hong Kong for Vietnam via Singapore on Nov 18. He returned 21 days later and was found to have Covid-19 with the mutant strain.

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As a precaution, the place where he resided during the incubation period, which is Block 16 of Baguio Villa in Pokfulam will be put under compulsory testing notice.

As three passengers of CX764 from Ho Chi Minh City tested positive on their arrival test in Hong Kong, the flight has been suspended for two weeks starting today until Dec 20.

The teenager had been in Ramada TST for 20 days before he tested positive

Today’s fourth case involves a 15-year-old male patient who tested positive for Covid-19 on the eve of his release from 21-day quarantine at Ramada Grand Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.

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The patient arrived from the United Kingdom on Nov 20 aboard British Airways flight BA027. He received one dose of the BioNTech vaccine in the UK on Oct 20.

The CHP said that since all five cases involving Omicron were detected at the airport or at a designated quarantine hotel, the variant has not spread in the community.

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Nevertheless, the CHP said it will adopt the most stringent prevention and control measures to prevent the mutant strain from entering the local community.

For case details and contact tracing information, please check out the Covid-19 thematic website: www.coronavirus.gov.hk.