Family Of Three Among Latest Covid Patients

Health officials on Tuesday reported 13 new Covid-19 infections, including three local cases.

One of the local cases, a 55-year-old housewife who lives in Sham Tseng, was infected via an unknown source and started coughing on April 4.

The housewife had been to the Yeung Uk Road market and went grave-sweeping in Tsang Tsui in Tuen Mun during the incubation period.

The two other cases were her relatives – a 34-year-old woman who works in Central and a 38-year-old man who works in Cheung Sha Wan.

More than 20 colleagues of the duo were being sent into quarantine.

The younger woman went grave-sweeping in Tseung Kwan O with eight family members, who have to be quarantined.

But Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection said other tomb-sweepers need not worry about having caught the virus if they paid attention to personal hygiene.

"I do not think grave-sweeping itself will pose risks to the spread of Covid, if people put on masks," she said.

"But if some of the members of the [grave-sweepers] take off their masks and share food after grave-sweeping, they may pose risks to other members nearby," she warned.

The 10 imported cases involved people arriving from Pakistan, India and Indonesia.