A man drives past closed bars at Hong Kong’s Lan Kwai Fong area on Jan 9, 2022.
(BERTHA WANG / AFP)
HONG KONG – Hong Kong reported 228 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday as health authorities continued to investigate a possible cross-infection at a quarantine hotel in the Central district.
The new cases comprised 212 local infections and 16 imported cases, Albert Au, principal medical and health officer of the Communicable Disease Branch of the Centre for Health Protection, said at a press briefing.
The new cases comprised 212 local infections and 16 imported cases, Albert Au, principal medical and health officer of the Communicable Disease Branch of the Centre for Health Protection
He said 103 were detected through nucleic acid testing and 125 by rapid antigen tests.
All imported cases were detected at the airport or at quarantine hotels, involving travelers from the US, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the UAE, Indonesia, France, Russia and Spain.
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Au added that 10 more travelers aged 22 to 44 tested positive for the BA.2.12.1 Omicron subvariant, bringing the total number of such cases in the financial hub to 56.
The authorities also detected two new cases of the BA.4 subvariant and three new cases of the BA.2.12 subvariant, taking the total number of such infections to 11 and 10, respectively.
All the new cases were found at the airport, Au said.
Au said officials are still investigating a possible cross-infection at Lan Kwai Fong Hotel @ Kau U Fong quarantine hotel, where people staying in two rooms tested positive for the BA.2.12.1 subvariant.
A couple arriving from San Francisco on May 3 tested negative during their stay at the hotel but positive at a community testing on May 14, which was the 12th day of their arrival.
Health authorities suspected that the couple might have contracted the virus from a father and son who stayed in room 3304 of the hotel upon arrival from Nepal. They tested positive during their compulsory quarantine at the hotel.
The whole genome sequencing revealed that the genetic sequences of the couple in room 3204 and the 27-year-old man in room 3304 are identical, suggesting that they are very likely to be epidemiologically linked.
Au said officials and government adviser Yuen Kwok-yuen had inspected the hotel and collected 15 environmental samples. All but one sample, collected at the ventilator of the washroom of room 3304, tested positive for the virus, Au said.
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Eleven places where the couple visited between May 10 and May 15 have been included in the compulsory testing notice. They involved nine restauranst, one cinema and an office of the Marine Department.
Meanwhile, Lau Ka-hin, chief manager (quality and standards) of the Hospital Authority, said in the same briefing that no patient infected with COVID-19 passed away over the past 24 hours.
The number of COVID-19 patients who died in the fifth wave of the pandemic stood at 9,157.