Covid Tests Ordered For Tseung Kwan O Mall Visitors

Hong Kong on Friday recorded seven new local Covid-19 cases, including one infection with an unknown source.

The Centre for Health Protection’s Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said the patient, 33, is unemployed and lives in Tseung Kwan O, and had bought takeaways from several restaurants in Phase 2 of the Metro City mall.

A renovation worker who worked in the mall was earlier confirmed to have contracted the virus.

Chuang told a press briefing that authorities are therefore ordering anyone who has been to the mall for more than two hours after March 19 to get tested for the coronavirus.

“There are not many local unlinked cases in these few days, but we did find two who had visited the same mall… We think it’s a bit strange, therefore we would like to rule out whether there is any possible transmission in this mall,” she said.

About a dozen of the latest patient's friends who he had played football with will be sent into quarantine.

Chuang said there are several preliminary positive cases, and there are no untraceable cases so far.

There were 12 imported cases, who arrived from Indonesia, the Philippines, Botswana, Canada, Pakistan and Ireland.

Meanwhile, Chuang noted the public may want to “go out and relax a bit” during the long Easter Holiday, and asked people to avoid crowded places and big gatherings.