HK Records 32 More Local Covid-19 Cases

Health authorities confirmed 32 new, locally-transmitted cases of Covid-19 in Hong Kong on Friday – including 11 people who live at the same public housing estate in Sha Tin, and nine cases spread across the territory whose source of infection remains a mystery.

At the same time, six more imported cases were confirmed, taking the overall Covid-19 tally in Hong Kong to 1,403.

Dr Chuang Shuk-Kwan of the Centre for Health Protection acknowledged that the mystery cases are a cause for great concern, saying the current community outbreaks appear to be more widespread than a previous surge in virus cases back in March.

“During that period… [many of the cases were] linked, and we can find a source, and those unlinked cases are only sporadic cases, so we can still locate them and stop the spread. But in recent cases, I think the spread is much wider”, Chuang said.

She added that many recent infections cannot be linked to any known clusters, or previously confirmed cases, “So we are very worried about that, because that potentially can lead to a wide community outbreak.”

The patients without any obvious links to previous cases include two women who works at two different Sa Sa cosmetic shops in Yau Tong and Ma On Shan, a student, and a 35-year-old man who runs a tutoring centre in North Point.

Chuang said she’s also concerned about 11 newly-confirmed cases at Shui Chuen O Estate, as they all live in the same building as the first case that was confirmed on Tuesday.

She said government inspectors have already taken a look at the pipes of the building, and concluded that there was no discernible connection between the patients’ flats.

Chuang said it’s more likely that the patients had picked up the virus in communal areas such as the elevator.

The new infections were found after hundreds of residents were tested for the virus in the wake of the first infection.

Authorities said more tests of people at neighbouring shops, wet markets and restaurants would be conducted.

Besides this growing new cluster, more cases confirmed on Friday that were linked to other previously-known cases centred on two restaurants. Several more taxi drivers were also confirmed to be infected.

And the son of a resident of an elderly home in Tsz Wan-shan - the centre of yet another outbreak - has also tested positive for the coronavirus.

Dr Chuang said his father had gone home for dinner for Father’s Day on June 28.

"This may have some link to the outbreak at the elderly home", she said.

Responding to calls from some pro-government legislators to consider universal testing for all in Hong Kong, Chuang said she's "not sure" about this, because even if there is a way to surmount that practical problems of testing millions of people, such tests would have to be conducted all at the same time.

"Even if they [test negative] at one point they can still get infected from other sector of the population if they are not [all] tested at once", she explained.

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