A woman (left) sells household items at a street stall in Hong Kong on May 30, 2022. (PETER PARKS / AFP)
Hong Kong recorded 275 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, including 19 infections from two bars in Central that had outbreaks.
The new cases comprised 227 local infections and 48 imported cases, Albert Au Ka-wing, principal medical and health officer of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said in a press briefing.
He said the imported cases came from the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Canada, Indonesia, Spain, Poland, the Philippines, Cambodia, Mozambique, Germany, and Mexico.
The government also banned Ethiopian Airlines flights from Bangkok and Addis Ababa from May 31 to June 4 after one such flight on May 27 had one passenger who did not comply with health travel rules and four others who tested positive for COVID-19
The government also banned Ethiopian Airlines flights from Bangkok and Addis Ababa from May 31 to June 4 after one such flight on May 27 had one passenger who did not comply with health travel rules and four others who tested positive for COVID-19.
Au said the cluster at the Iron Fairies bar along Hollywood Road in Central had 11 new cases, bringing its total to 22, involving six men and 16 women.
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Two men, aged 29 and 30 years old, who visited Iron Fairies on the evening of May 21 also went to the Zentral Club, the site of the other outbreak in Central, he said.
“The two persons, who knew each other, first went to Iron Fairies and stayed for half an hour and then they went to Zentral bar,” Au said, adding that 31 environmental samples taken from Iron Fairies tested positive for the virus.
Au said the cluster at Zentral Club also had 8 new cases, bringing its total to 23, with 13 men and 10 women infected.
He said the ventilation at the two bars was “not ideal” on the night of May 21 and they were “quite crowded”, with the two clubs serving a total of over 700 patrons that evening.
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“Our preliminary investigation show nearly all of the cases have taken off their masks while they visited these two premises. They were in a closed environment with poor or inadequate ventilation,” Au said.
One of the patrons at Zentral Club is a 23-year-old basketball coach who taught a training session at Pok Oi Hospital Tang Pui King Memorial College on May 24.
Another student who attended the training session tested positive, with eight of 29 students who joined the training now infected, Au said.
Gladys Kwan, chief manager (Clinical Effectiveness and Technology Management) of the Hospital Authority, said two more female COVID-19 patients, aged 65 and 84, died in the last 24 hours, bringing the toll to 9,165.
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