Migrant workers queue up for COVID-19 testing in the Central district of Hong Kong on May 1, 2021. (PETER PARKS / AFP)
HONG KONG – Hong Kong saw one confirmed COVID-19 infection on Monday, involving a mutant virus strain, pushing the city’s tally of confirmed cases to 11, 833.
The confirmed local case with an unknown source involved a 46-year-old Filipino domestic worker at Island Harbourview in Tai Kok Tsui, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said in a press briefing on Monday afternoon.
The confirmed local case with an unknown source involved a 46-year-old Filipino domestic worker at Island Harbourview in Tai Kok Tsui
The worker had gone with her former employer to Pakistan but came back to Hong Kong in April. She has tested positive with the more infectious N501Y strain.
“At the moment, we classify her as a local case because..she arrived in Hong Kong in early April or almost two months ago,” Chuang said.
She said the domestic worker was quarantined in Ramada Hotel in Sai Ying Pun but there were no other confirmed patients on her floor. The helper had also stayed in Tsing Yi before moving in with her new employer in Harbourview.
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Chuang said the worker had gone to World-Wide House in Central on May 16 to remit money and also stayed at the Central promenade with some friends.
“We will manage this as a local case at the moment and put close contacts under quarantine to observe, test and make sure there are no other local linked cases,” Chuang said.
She said the CHP was looking into two preliminarily positive cases, one involving a nurse at the Kwun Chung vaccination center and the other involving a Pakistani construction worker.
Chuang said the nurse, whose viral load was “very low” and was not infectious, may have been infected through “environmental contamination” or from remnants of inactivated virus strains in the vaccine that she administered.
“We suspect she’s not really suffering from COVID infection but contaminated by the environment where she works,” Chuang said.
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She added that they were still trying to contact the 43-year-old Pakistrani construction worker.
Meanwhile, the CHP said it was also investigating an outbreak of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) at a kindergarten in Sham Shui Po, and appealed to the public and staff of institutions to stay alert and maintain strict personal and environmental hygiene.
The students — 11 boys and 10 girls aged 3 to 5 — developed cough, runny nose, fever and sore throat since April 20. Seventeen of them sought medical attention while one who required hospitalization has been discharged. All of them are now in stable condition, the CHP added.