Covid Case Sends Kindergarten Kids Into Quarantine

Hong Kong on Saturday recorded its first untraceable local Covid-19 case in a week – a four-year-old boy who came down with a fever and sore throat earlier this week.

Health officials said the boy had last been to kindergarten on May 12, and saw a doctor in Tsing Yi after developing symptoms. His sample confirmed he was infected with Covid-19.

The head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable diseases branch, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, said about two dozen pupils and teachers at the boy’s kindergarten in Ho Man Tin, the HKVNS Alumni Association Kindergarten, will need to be sent to a quarantine hotel.

Chuang said the young pupils will be accompanied by family members, and authorities are liaising with social workers to provide toys and books for the children.

She said the four-year-old boy splits his time between two homes, one in Ho Man Tin and one in Shek Kip Mei. His parents both work at restaurants, and tested negative for the coronavirus in their latest regular tests.

Besides going to kindergarten, the boy had only been out to eat a meal with his family.

Chuang said the possible routes of infection were limited, “so hopefully we will can find the possible source of infection for this case.”

Officials also reported two imported coronavirus cases from Indonesia on Saturday, a 35-year-old woman who arrived in the city on May 1 and a 21-year-old woman who arrived on May 7.

Officials said there were five preliminary positive cases.

Chuang also provided an update on the case of a clerk from the private laboratory BGI who was listed as a confirmed coronavirus case.

The clerk had received both doses of the BioNTech vaccine, and was subject to regular coronavirus tests. He was confirmed as a positive case after a test at a community testing centre on May 4.

Chuang said genome analysis suggests the virus strain was not similar to the prevalent one circulating in Hong Kong at the time and was closer to a strain originating from Wuhan.

She said they believe this may not be an infection after all, and could possibly be a case of contamination. Chuang said they will investigate the matter with experts.

If the case is found to be contamination, rather than an infection, the case will be removed from the city’s list of confirmed infections.