CHP warns local spread of Covid-19 getting more serious

By Daisy CL Mandap 

Dr Chuang warns more cases could emerge from the Omicron and Delta outbreaks

Health officials have warned that the coronavirus spread in Hong Kong is getting more severe, with seven local confirmed cases reported today, Jan 19, two of them untraceable.

Nine imported cases were also reported, taking Hong Kong’s total Covid-19 tally to 13,082.

“We have been seeing more untraceable cases so we think the pandemic situation is getting more severe,” said Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection in the daily press briefing today.

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One of the untraceable cases pertains to a 26-year-old kindergarten teacher found to carry the Omicron variant. An overnight lockdown of her residential building in Mei Foo Sun Chuen did not yield any new case.

Another confirmed unlinked case is that of a 73-year-old man who lives in Yat Kwai House in Kwai Chung whose infection was detected when he underwent a medical procedure at Yan Chai Hospital.

The man often spent his time in a park near his home but on Jan 8 had his HKID card replaced at the Immigration Department.

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Today a few preliminary positive cases also raised concern as no links between them and previous infections could be established immediately.

One concerns a 17-year-old boy living in Kwun Tong and studies at St Joseph’s Anglo-Chinese College who was found to carry the L452R strain of the Delta variant.

Chuang said his case could be linked to the outbreak of the Delta variant that started in the Little Boss pet shop in Causeway Bay. A female sales staff and two customers have tested positive for the increasingly rare variant that was also found in 11 hamsters being sold at the shop.

The school boy found with the Delta variant has never been to this pet shop

However, the student found infected today has never been to the shop.

Another preliminary case with no apparent link to previous infections involves a 53-year-old male forklift driver at the airport who tested positive after developing a cough on Jan 18.

He lives in Yat Kwai House in Kwai Chung estate where the elderly man who was confirmed positive today also lives. However, officials have yet to find out if they had interactions with each other.

Even if they did, it is unclear how many other people around them have already been infected as well.

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Also listed as a preliminary case is a friend of the kindergarten teacher in Mei Foo, who works in K11 Musea in Tsuen Wan. The new patient started coughing on Jan 17, after she was sent to a quarantine centre.

Chuang said most of the confirmed and preliminary positive cases reported today had Ct values of no more than 20, indicating a heavy viral load.

The untraceable new cases prompted Chuang to call on people living in Mei Foo and Kwai Chung to get tested, as there appears to be a silent transmission of the virus in the two districts.

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Today’s confirmed cases also included the 10^th and 11^th patients linked to the Pakistani woman who tested positive for the Omicron variant 26 days after arriving in Hong Kong.

The mother and daughter live in a floor above that of the woman in Tung Moon House in Sham Shui Po, stoking fears of a vertical transmission in the building.

Another patient indirectly linked to what Chuang has called as “the 26^th day case” is a 58-year-old teacher at Delia Memorial School (Broadway), also in Mei Foo, who acted as invigilator at an examination taken by two infected students at the school.

Another resident of Monterey Cove tests positive though no new case was found during a lockdown

One of the students is the son of the Pakistani woman while the other is his classmate who lives in Monterey Cove in Caribbean Coast, Tung Chung.

Today one of the preliminary positive cases is a 14-year-old boy who also lives in Monterey Cove, and studies at HKMA David Li Kwok-po College in Mong Kok.

CHP ordered both HKMA David Li College and St Joseph’s College to suspend face-to-face classes after the two teenagers tested positive for the virus.

Meantime, all students and teachers present during the examination at Delia School have been moved to quarantine.

Chuang warned more cases could come up from the two clusters of infections fueled by Omicron in one, and Delta in the other.

“There are signs that there are still cases coming up from the community testing centres, so we urge the public to be vigilant about hand hygiene and avoid social activities as much as possible.”