By Daisy CL Mandap
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| Secretary Chan said the Kwai Chung outbreak was caused by a 'superspreader' |
Hong Kong’s health
authorities have ordered a five-day complete lockdown of Yat Kwai house in Kwai
Chung estate as it emerged that a so-called “superspreader” had infected at
least 20 other residents, staff and visitors at the building.
Secretary for Health
Prof. Sophia Chan made the announcement as the first day of the lockdown began
at 6pm today, Jan 21.
“The government
takes a serious view of this incident and will take action,” said Prof. Chan. “We
must take swift action so we can return to normal as soon as possible.”
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Prof Chan said that
during the lockdown which will last until Wednesday morning, all 2,700 residents
of the building will not be allowed to leave, and will be required to undergo
daily testing. All meals will be brought to them by staff of the Housing
Authority.
She said at least 20
cases have been linked to the outbreak at Yat Kwai House, which she described
as worrying.
At the regular press
briefing by the Centre for Health Protection earlier, six confirmed cases were
linked to the housing block. This was on top of the three confirmed cases
reported on Wednesday and Thursday.
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Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan
who conducted the briefing said there were more than 20 preliminary positive
cases, and about 10 of them are also connected to the Yat Kwai outbreak.
Health experts who
conducted a site visit at the estate Thursday night only recommended a
three-day overnight lockdowns, with residents who test negative on the daily
tests being allowed to leave the building for work or other purposes.
But as more cases
linked to the building emerged, health officials decided to extend the lockdown
and ensure all residents are kept in for five days when they estimate all those
who had been infected with the virus would be detected.
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CHP controller Dr
Edwin Tsui said the outbreak started when the husband of a woman who was
infected during her 21-day quarantine at Silka Seaview Hotel in Yau Ma Tei went
to collect salvageable items from the garbage dump at Yat Kwai and two other
buildings in the estate on Jan. 13.
“At the collection
station he got in touch with the cleaner and passed the virus on to her,” Tsui
said. The cleaner in turn passed it on to residents as she collected their
garbage or said hello to them in the hallways.
Tsui said the
cleaner would have been most infectious between Jan 16 to 18, and those who
were infected by her would have incubated the virus in three to six days.
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“(So) within these
five days we hope to catch all those infected,” he said.
The officials
explained that moving all the residents to a quarantine center was not
necessary as the virus did not spread through the sewage pipes or air
ventilation system as what happens when the so-called “vertical transmission”
occurs.
“This is not a
building structure issue so there is no need to move residents to a quarantine
center,” said Chan.
She appealed to
residents who were still out when the lockdown began this evening to “go home
normally” and not go elsewhere, and assured them that the Housing Authority will
provide them support, from the daily testing to providing them with meals for
the next five days.
She hoped things
could return to normal for the residents before the Lunar New Year holidays.
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| Yat Kwai residents do some shopping before the lockdown (RTHK photo) |
She also urged those living in high risk areas in Aberdeen and Sham Shui Po to get tested, and for everyone who has not received Covid-19 vaccine to get jabbed as soon as possible.
At the CHP briefing,
Dr Chuang listed among the preliminary cases a cleaner at Yat Kwai who lives in
the neighboring Ying Kwai House in the same estate.
A two-year-old child
who lives on the same floor as the cleaner in Ying Kwai House has also tested
preliminary positive, as well as a security guard at Yat Kwai.
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No information was
made available as to whether the cleaner was vaccinated, but the Pakistani
peddler who passed on the virus to her was not vaccinated.
Of the six confirmed
cases today that were linked to the outbreak, four had no record of having received
vaccination.
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| Chuang reported 6 confirmed cases in Kwai Chung, and 5 related to the hamster infections |
Chuang said a total
of 24 cases were detected as of midnight Thursday, and 18 were local cases.
Sixteen were linked to other local cases, while the sources of infection of the
two others were unknown.
The untraceable cases
pertained to a 24-year-old assistant social worker who lives in Cheung Sha Wan
and works in Kwai Chung, and a 37-year-old female salesperson in Kwun Tong who
lives in Tsuen Wan.
Five of the
confirmed local cases were connected to the outbreak of the Delta variant in
pet shops which prompted a cull of about 2,000 small animals on Tuesday.
Two had bought
hamsters from the Little Boss pet shops in Mong Kok and Causeway Bay, where 11
of the animals were found to carry the L452R mutant strain linked to Delta.
Two others were
family members of a customer of the Causeway Bay pet shop who was infected
earlier. They also bought something from the shop.
The last infected
person had a meal at Dragon Palace Restaurant in Aberdeen at about the same
time as the husband of the pet shop customer. Chuang said the two sat far
apart, but both remembered going to the men’s toilet during that time, so it’s
believed the infection happened there.
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