Hunt On To Locate 28 Maids Linked To A Covid Case

Health officials are trying to locate at least 28 foreign domestic helpers and their employers after it emerged that a woman who tested positive for the coronavirus had stayed in a boarding house with these workers.

This was revealed by Centre for Health Protection (CHP) officials who reported another 85 Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong on Wednesday, and 33 of them have no known source of transmission.

One of the newly confirmed local cases with no known source of infection is an Indonesian domestic helper who stayed at two boarding homes – in Wan Chai and Causeway Bay – last month.

The CHP's Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said that the woman had been job hunting after leaving her previous employer on July 20, and developed a fever on August 1

She stayed at a boarding house on Lockhart Road in Wan Chai with 28 other domestic workers from July 22 to 23, and at a domestic helper agency at the Causeway Bay Commercial Building with four other domestic helpers from July 30 to 31.

Chuang said that they're still trying to find out where the domestic helper was from July 24 to 29, and because of the language barrier, they have enlisted the police for help with the investigation.

She said that the staff and domestic helpers who stayed in the Causeway Bay agency with the woman have been located and will be sent to quarantine.

But the 28 domestic helpers who stayed in the Wan Chai boarding house have since moved in with their respective employers.

Chuang said that the CHP are trying to obtain a list of the employers so that they can contact them and arrange for Covid-19 testing.

"We are tracing the other foreign domestic helpers who lived with this case in that period. Although two weeks has passed, it is still possible that there may be other foreign domestic helpers affected, that’s why we are tracing them to offer tests for them, we will contact the employers," she said.

"We are a bit worried because we have not found the source for this case yet."

Among the other newly-confirmed cases, five are linked to the King Fok elderly care home in Sham Shui Po – namely four residents and one staff – and six more people have links to the Star Global cluster.

The Hospital Authority also said an 86-year-old coronavirus patient died on Wednesday afternoon, taking the death toll linked to Covid-19 in Hong Kong to 43.

Tuen Mun Hospital said the male patient with chronic illnesses was admitted last week with a fever and shortness of breath. He lived at Cornwall Elderly's Home in Tuen Mun, where dozens of residents and staff have been infected.