Free Test Upon App Alert As K11 Musea Cluster Grows

A coronavirus cluster involving a restaurant in an upscale shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui has expanded to include over 40 people, as health officials moved to offer free Covid-19 tests for those who received an alert on the government's LeaveHomeSafe app.

The application, developed by the SAR government, has a function of sending out notifications to users if they have records showing that they were at the same venue at about the same time as a recently confirmed coronavirus patient.

The Centre for Health Protection's Dr Albert Au said on Sunday that the application has been useful, and so far around 70 to 80 confirmed patients have been using the app.

He said the relevant patients have been asked to upload their logs to health authorities to help alert or trace other contacts.

And now anyone who has received a notification about their potential exposure with a confirmed patient will be able to get a free Covid-19 test at a community testing centre.

"The provision of free tests to persons who have received infection notifications through this app is to improve the access to tests so that they can be tested as early as possible," Dr Au said.

The new measure comes as Hong Kong reported 22 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday.

Of the 17 newly-reported local cases, 10 are linked to a cluster at the Mr Ming's Chinese Dining at K11 Musea shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Dr Au said the cluster is likely to grow bigger because a super-spreader was involved. So far, he said altogether 44 patients are involved in the cluster and around 100 people have been quarantined for the cluster.

"There is a super-spreading event in Mr Ming's restaurant on 19th of February. and caused a significant infections among the customers and staff there....It is possible that short-range air-borne transmission, together with environmental contamination, and also close-contact with cases, will cause infections."

Health authorities added that they're tracing people who visited a clinic in Tai Kok Tsui on two afternoons last week, after a nurse there came down with the virus.

Three people who'd earlier been to the Mr Ming's restaurant had visited that clinic on February 22 and 24, and are suspected of infecting the nurse.

The centre said people who have been to the clinic at around the same time as the trio will have to be quarantined.

And among the four untraceable local cases, those include a 20-year-old man working at a sports shop in Mong Kok.

Dr Au said the man's 58-year-old mother and elder brother had also tested preliminary positive.