Hotel Evacuation Not Ordered By Health Officials

Health authorities say a decision to evacuate guests from a Kowloon hotel where there have been Covid infections was not their recommendation, but a move by the management.

This comes as eight new coronavirus cases were recorded in the city, three of them staff at the Royal Garden Hotel.

The Centre for Health Protection's (CHP) Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said all of the infections detected at the hotel were employees who had used a male locker room there.

All the employees and some guests were tested for the coronavirus after a waiter at a Vietnamese restaurant in the hotel contracted Covid earlier this week.

Chuang said most of the results came back negative apart from a 35-year-old who works at the hotel's Italian restaurant Sabatini, a 58-year-old who works in the hotel's coffee shop, and a 46-year-old air conditioning mechanic at the hotel.

When asked by reporters why about 100 hotel guests were asked to leave the building and stay in other hotels, and if there was a risk of infection from these guests, Chuang said it was not a move requested by the CHP.

But she said the authorities will get in touch with these people and provide bottles for specimen collections if needed.

All four cases linked to the hotel so far involve men, and investigators found that they had all used a locker room for male staff when changing into their uniforms. All four had also eaten meals on the same floor as the staff lounge.

From this the CHP deduced that the outbreak was linked to the male locker room and lounge, and male staff who used the locker room will be classified as close contacts.

Chuang said that some male employees who had used the locker room will have to be quarantined, the hotel will need to be disinfected, and all female employees given a second test just in case.

Meanwhile the under secretary for food and health, Dr Chui Tak-yi, said authorities will send vans to Central and Wan Chai to collect specimens from staff and customers at bars.

Four temporary testing centres will also be set up in different districts and will operate for five days.

Chui said the move is in response to alarming signs of silent transmissions, as the city saw a 10th consecutive day with new cases with no known sources.

He told reporters that from October 2 to October 8, there were a total of 64 new Covid-19 cases recorded, of which 29 were imported, and 35 local.

One of the local cases reported on Friday had also visited the China Secret bar in Tsim Sha Tsui, which has been at the centre of a cluster of infections this week, bringing the total number of cases in that group to 11.

There was only one local case with no known source of infection, a 25-year-old unemployed man who lives on Ki Lung Street in Prince Edward, who had yum cha with his family on weekdays but otherwise did not take part in any high-risk activities.