Discharged Covid-19 Patient Readmitted

Health authorities on Tuesday said medical experts are looking into a case in which a recovered Covid-19 patient has been readmitted to hospital, after traces of the virus were found in his body.

The Centre for Health Protection said the 17-year-old student was confirmed with the infection after he returned from the UK last month. He subsequently recovered and was discharged two weeks ago.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said the teenager had lived alone at a flat after he was discharged, with his family having moved to a hotel.

She said his family wanted to play safe before moving back in with the teenager, so he saw a private doctor recently and got tested again.

A chief manager with the Hospital Authority, Dr Lau Ka-hin, said the latest result was “weak positive”.

He said the teenager was re-admitted to Queen Mary Hospital again, although experts agree his infection risk is low.

"He was seen by different experts, including the paediatrician, an infectious disease expert as well as a microbiologist. They all agreed that because of the very low value of the PCR test means there's a very small amount of residual virus which has a very low infection risk," Lau said.

"Because of this phenomena, we will have more discussions about the future management in our central committee of infectious disease and emergency response," he said.

Health officials said the teenager’s family members were not considered close contacts as they had only delivered food, but they would be tested for the virus as a precaution.

Meanwhile, the centre reported four new coronavirus cases on Tuesday – all imported from overseas.

All of them tested positive for the virus at Asia-World Expo on Lantau shortly after they landed in Hong Kong on Monday

They include a couple who returned from the US and told officials they felt unwell before flying back. The other two patients, a 13-year-old student and a 25-year-old man, returned from the UK and don’t have any symptoms.

The new cases take the total number of confirmed infections in Hong Kong to 1,029. There have been four deaths.