Staff members check whether people in the "restricted area" at Tower 6, Albany Cove, Caribbean Coast Phase II, 1 Kin Tung Road, Tung Chung, have undergone compulsory testing in the enforcement operation. (PHOTO/HKSAR GOVERNMENT)
HONG KONG – The Hong Kong government cordoned off three buildings in Ma On Shan, North Point and Tung Chung on Saturday night respectively for targeted testing after the detection of one more positive COVID-19 case related to a Kowloon Tong restaurant and a preliminarily positive imported case.
A total of around 1,500 people were tested in the three exercises, which ended at around 10 am Sunday morning. No one tested positive to COVID-19.
In a statement issued Saturday evening, the Centre for Health Protection said latest investigations revealed that a 50-year-old woman who had lunch in Moon Palace at Festival Walk shopping mall on Dec 27 tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday.
A total of around 1,500 people were tested in the three exercises, which ended at around 10 am Sunday morning. No one tested positive to COVID-19
Three people who had visited the Chinese restaurant – a Cathay Pacific aircrew member and his father as well as a construction worker – have tested positive to Omicron so far.
The woman carried the N501Y and T478K mutant strains, the CHP said. She is a housewife who had received two doses of the BioNTech vaccine in Hong Kong.
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She developed a cough and runny nose on Dec 30 and was arranged to undergo quarantine at the Penny's Bay Quarantine Centre on Friday. Her household members and the people who had lunch together with her at the restaurant at the same time were classified as close contacts and have also been sent to the quarantine center.
The government made a restriction-testing declaration at Block 6, Villa Athena in Ma On Shan where she lives. A total of around 300 residents have undergone testing and all tested negative.
A staff member collects samples through combined nasal and throat swabs for a person subject to compulsory testing in the "restricted area" at Nam Tin Building, 275 King's Road, North Point, Jan 1, 2022. (PHOTO/HKSAR GOVERNMENT)
Separately, the CHP said it is investigating a preliminarily positive imported case involving mutant strains.
The case involved a 28-year-old woman who is a local aircrew member living at Nam Tin Building in North Point.
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She tested negative in Hong Kong on Dec 22 and travelled to the US on Dec 24. She returned to the city on Dec 27 on Cathay Pacific flight CX885. Her specimen collected upon arrival at the airport also tested negative.
“The patient underwent medical surveillance and regular compulsory testing in accordance with relevant requirements for exempted people,” the CHP said.
She developed COVID-19 symptoms on the evening of Dec 29 and consulted a private doctor the next day. Her sample tested preliminarily positive on Saturday involving the N501Y and T478K mutant strains, the CHP said.
According to the information given by the patient, she had stayed in her friend's home at Tower 6, Albany Cove, Caribbean Coast Phase II in Tung Chung since Dec 29.
As such, the government set restricted areas for both Nam Tin Building and Tower 6 of Albany Cove. As of 1 am Saturday, around 285 residents of the North Point building and around 900 of Tung Chung block have been tested. All results returned negative.
The places visited by the patient during the infectious period will also be subject to compulsory testing.