Filipina Helpers On HK Flight Infected With Covid

Five domestic helpers who were on the same flight to Hong Kong from the Philippines were among the city's latest Covid-19 cases.

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) reported on Friday a total of 12 new cases – nine imported and three local. There were about 10 preliminary positive infections.

Of the nine imported cases, five were domestic workers who arrived from the Philippines on Wednesday.

They were among 13 helpers on the same flight to Hong Kong. Another member of the group has tested preliminary positive, and the rest have been sent to quarantine.

They were represented by the same employment agency.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the CHP said that before arriving in Hong Kong, the helpers had stayed in a hostel in Manila and it was possible they were infected there.

Among the three local cases, one is a five-year-old boy who tested preliminary positive on Thursday. His mother gave her sample under the government's universal testing scheme and learned that she tested positive while her son had surgery at the Eye Hospital.

The other two local patients were picked up by the universal testing scheme, and the source of infection was not known. One is a housewife who lives in Tseung Kwan O, and the other works as a waitress in a restaurant at Metropark Hotel Mongkok where several guests tested positive earlier.

Seventy hotel staff were told to leave a sample if they haven't taken part in universal testing. But Chuang said the case of the waitress doesn't appear to be related to the cluster because those guests who fell ill had not gone to the restaurant.

"We are still asking the management how many of them have undergone testing and how many bottles they still need, because I think the management may have encouraged the staff to do the test, but they may not have kept the statistics and exact numbers, so we still have to ask them."