Government personnel check whether residents of Belvedere Garden in Tsuen Wan have undergone compulsory testing on April 20, 2021. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVERNMENT)
HONG KONG – Hong Kong reported eight new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, half of which were locally transmitted, pushing the city’s tally to 11,703.
The new cases included three confirmed imported infections from India and the Philippines and four local cases of unknown origin, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said at a briefing.
One of the three confirmed imported cases on Tuesday involved a 2-year-old boy who flew back from India on April 4 via UK6395, a flight that has seen 53 people on board confirmed infected
Chuang said that one of the untraceable infections involved a 46-year-old woman who came back to the city on April 6 from Dongguan, Guangdong province.
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Living at Sin Ching Building, Tsuen Wan, the patient worked as a waitress at Nina Hotel Tsuen Wan West from April 10 until Monday, according to Chuang.
The other untraceable cases involved a 57-year-old woman living at Belvedere Garden Phase 2 Block in Tsuen Wan, a 42-year-old construction worker from Mei Tin Estate Mei Ting House in Tai Wai, and a 29-year-old domestic helper who came to Hong Kong on March 20 from Indonesia.
The domestic worker underwent mandatory quarantine at Ramada Hong Kong Grand in Tsim Sha Tsui, the hotel where a 29-year-old man from Dubai also underwent 21 days of quarantine.
The man tested positive last week with the coronavirus variant that was first found in South Africa. Two other patients on the same floor were found with the same variant.
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Chuang said health authorities will conduct gene sequencing for all the patients who stayed at the hotel from January to confirm whether there were transmissions there.
One of the three imported cases on Tuesday involved a 2-year-old boy who flew back from India on April 4 via UK6395, a flight that has seen 53 people on board confirmed infected, according to Chuang.
The other two were a 37-year-old woman from the Philippines and a 2-year-old girl from India. The Hong Kong government banned all the flights from India, the Philippines and Pakistan for two weeks starting Tuesday.
Chuang also said that the infection of a 56-year-old woman who returned to the city on April 6 from Fujian province via the Shenzhen Bay checkpoint has yet to be classified.
The patient was under home quarantine and stayed with a friend in a sub-divided flat at Fu Yung Building in Tsuen Wan.
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Chuang added that the patient’s infection could be later classified as imported, but the possibility of local transmission could not be ruled out because she had roommates and no cases had been reported in Fujian.
Chuang also quoted the woman as saying that she had received two vaccine doses, with the second one administered on March 19.
The government cordoned off the patient's building, and that of the 56-year-old patient in Belvedere Garden, for targeted testing on Monday night.
A total of about 1,195 residents were tested but no confirmed cases were found.