Customers dine at a restaurant in Hong Kong on April 14, 2022, as the Hong Kong government announced easing of COVID-19 restrictions on April 21. (ISAAC LAWRENCE / AFP)
Hong Kong’s health authorities on Tuesday reported 328 new COVID-19 infections – up from 234 logged on the previous day – but no related deaths were recorded for the second consecutive day.
The new cases, which include 39 imported infections, take the city’s tally to 1,209,068 cases, with 9,361 fatalities, Dr Albert Au, principal medical and health officer of the Communicable Disease Branch of the Centre for Health Protection, said at a press briefing.
Of the new cases, 166 were confirmed through PCR tests while the rest through rapid antigen test results reported by citizens.
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Twenty-three of the imported cases detected at the airport are arrivals from countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, Taiwan, Canada, Iceland, and India. Eleven of them were confirmed in the quarantine hotels on the third to seventh day upon their arrival.
Four of the imported cases – three men and one woman traveling from the United Kingdom and Canada – have the Omicron BA.4 variant. The city has so far recorded seven Omicron BA.4 cases, all of detected either at the airport or quarantine hotels.
Among the newly infected patients are 20 students from as many different schools, including two kindergartens.
The health officials meanwhile are looking into whether some people linked to a cluster have deliberately misled them, saying that their accounts of visiting a private kitchen in Kwun Tong didn't match with what they have found in their initial investigation.
The authorities reported three new infections at TamJai Yunnan Mixian in Tung Chung, but said they can’t term it as an outbreak yet
Twenty people visiting Imperial Kitchen have been learnt to be infected so far. “The premise looked like a clubhouse, and has a living room, toilet, kitchen and a karaoke corner,” said Prof Au.
“Some people said they went there to attend gathering with friends while some said they were there for meetings or to pick up takeaways,” he said.
Some of those interviewed said food was served and there was some sort of celebration, and some stayed there for two hours with face masks off and had food, he added.
Asked to confirm whether the facility only had food manufacturing license, he said the FEHD will conduct investigation to see whether they broke rules.
The authorities reported three new infections at TamJai Yunnan Mixian in Tung Chung, but said they can’t term it as an outbreak yet.
Three people who visited the restaurant between 11:30 am and 1:30 pm on May 11 tested positive via rapid antigen tests. One of them tested positive on May 11 while the others two and three days later.
Environmental samples have been collected and the authorities are going to ask around 200 customers, identified through vaccine pass, for compulsory testing, Prof Au said, adding: “We don’t rule out other cases.”
Meanwhile, the Sky Cuisine restaurant in Sheung Wan saw eight more related cases – five customers and three staff members, taking the cluster's total to 64.
Another case was added to the cluster of Hung Hom snooker club Sun Mong Club, as a 56-year-old male customer tested positive via compulsory testing. So far, 13 customers and two staff members have been found infected there.
“In the past two weeks, we had 200-300 cases every day. It seems it is static at a high level, compared to figures of previous outbreaks, with slight fluctuations day to day,” he said, adding that it is possibly due to gradual relaxation of social distancing measures.
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He asked the public exercise vigilance and maintain good hygiene.
9 cases found in restricted area
The government on Tuesday announced that nine positive COVID-19 cases and one indeterminate case were found in the compulsory testing exercise for the restricted area in Tseung Kwan O.
The restriction-testing declaration was made on Monday to cover Sau Lam House of Tsui Lam Estate, where around 980 people were tested.
Staff members visited around 430 households there and will follow up with those who did not answer the door.