HK Sees Eight New Virus Cases After Three-day Pause

Hong Kong's tally of Covid-19 cases rose by eight on Thursday, after three days of no new cases, with all the latest patients having recently returned to the city from Pakistan.

The Centre for Health Protection said seven of those infected arrived on the same Qatar Airways flight on Wednesday.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said they included two women in their 30s and an 11-year-old girl who are all related, as well as a 56-year-old man and his two sons.

A 25-year-old man who has the virus was also on the same flight.

The other new patient is a 73-year-old woman who returned from Pakistan on Saturday and fell sick at a quarantine centre on Wednesday. She is linked to two patients recently confirmed to have the infection.

The new cases take the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong to 1,063.

Dr Chuang said 20 out of some 1,000 recent returnees from Pakistan have now been confirmed with the infection. She said the proportion was relatively high and the quarantine arrangements for such returnees will remain in place.

She added that about 600 airport workers have tested negative for the coronavirus under a new surveillance programme launched last Friday.