Cross-infection Fears Haunt Hospitals

There are growing concerns about possible cross-infection at public hospitals, with Eastern Hospital becoming the latest facility that saw patients being isolated after one of them tested positive for the coronavirus.

That's after the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Tuesday they were asking experts to check Kwong Wah Hospital for possible environmental contamination after a case involving two patients there.

At a daily briefing on Wednesday, health officials said a 69-year-old patient at Eastern Hospital tested positive for Covid-19 days after he was admitted.

When the patient was admitted on July 30 and sent to the surveillance ward, he was given a Covid test. The result was negative.

He was transferred to the geriatric ward the next day. By Tuesday, his situation got worse and a nasal swab test showed he had coronavirus.

Health officials said nine patients at the geriatric ward were to be placed under quarantine. The ward was also disinfected and stopped accepting new patients.

The 69-year-old patient has since been treated in the intensive care unit.

A chief manager for the Hospital Authority, Dr Lau Ka-hin, said authorities are trying to determine if he had contracted the virus from a 79-year-old male patient at the surveillance ward. That patient tested positive for Covid-19 on July 30.

Meanwhile, at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, two medical staff at the radiology section have been infected with coronavirus.

They are not involved in patient care.

Six of their colleagues who shared meals with them are now classified as close contacts and isolated.