'Fourth Coronavirus Wave Is Coming': CHP

Hong Kong recorded one new local case of Covid-19 with an unknown source and three more imported case on Tuesday, as authorities warned the SAR to be prepared for a fourth wave of the coronavirus.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from Centre for Health Protection said the confirmed case was a 29-year-old engineer who lives in Yuen Long, and works in Lai Chi-kok and a construction site in Sai Wan. He did not have any meals with anyone during infectious period, but over 40 colleagues of the site need to be tested, as they share the same common room at the site.

A security guard working in the same company with a previous local case tested positive among fewer than ten preliminary cases.

They did not have any direct contacts as they worked different shifts, so the authorities suspected that he was infected in the changing room that they shared.

Chuang said infection from common rooms "is not uncommon", noting that the staff in the Royal Garden Hotel infected with Covid-19 earlier this year had also shared a common room.

"So this is a risky place that we need to pay attention [to]," Chuang warned.

However, she said people sharing the same common room would not have to be quarantined, but the room would have to be thoroughly disinfected.

A taxi driver has also tested preliminary positive, after visiting a doctor after coughing for six days.

The taxi driver usually drives around the Kowloon area and ate at different places. Hoi Ping Chamber of Commerce Secondary School in Ho Man Tin where a close contact of the taxidriver teaches has been closed and disinfected.

Judging from a slight increase in unlinked local cases in the past two weeks, Chuang said it was too early to say if a fourth wave had hit the SAR, but warned that "we fear that the fourth wave is pending".