Covid Outbreak At Tai Wai Industrial Building

Health officials said a small-scale Covid-19 outbreak has erupted at an industrial building in Tai Wai, with up to 30 people working on one of the floors there being placed under quarantine.

Five more people linked to the Transport City Building cluster have tested positive, raising the total number of patients to nine.

The five were among 11 new coronavirus cases reported in the SAR on Monday, with 10 of them being locally-acquired.

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said infections have now been reported in four of the 12 businesses located on the sixth floor of the Tai Wai building.

The CHP's Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said one of the four previously-diagnosed patients in the cluster, who used to work on the sixth floor, came here for a visit in August and met with a 50-year-old former colleague who was among Monday's confirmed cases.

The 50-year-old man tested positive in the government's universal testing scheme.

Others linked to the cluster and confirmed with the virus on Monday were a close contact of that previously-confirmed patient, a staff member in the building's management office, and two of his family members.

All staff on the sixth floor are considered close contacts and will be quarantined.

"We think the sixth-floor tenants are maybe at a higher risk than other people, that's why we put them under quarantine," Chuang said, adding that samples will be collected from other staff in the building for testing.

And among those found to be infected through universal testing were a pregnant woman who works in a Chinese medicine clinic on Prince Edward Road West and a 63-year-old man who works at a restaurant in Ngau Tau Kok.

Chuang also said that there were fewer than 10 preliminary positive cases on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Hospital Authority said a 96-year-old female coronavirus patient died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Monday, raising the Covid-related death toll in Hong Kong to 98.