Lockdown 'Covid Case' Actually A Recovered Patient

Health officials said on Friday that the suspected coronavirus case the authorities found during their latest ambush lockdowns turned out to be a recovered Covid patient.

Thursday night saw buildings in Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok sealed off as tests were carried out on more than 2,100 residents, and the government said one person tested preliminary positive for the virus.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection said this person was actually a recovered patient who was discharged from hospital last Sunday and therefore isn't a new case after all.

Asked if people who have recovered from the infection should be exempted from testing, Chuang said it might be difficult in practice as they would have to provide proof to officials that they were previously confirmed cases.

“It is well known that patients may excrete virus for some time despite it may not be infectious,” she said.

“As for whether [there should be an] exemption for these cases, we have not discussed this because for the lockdown operation it’s usually a mass lockdown. We may consider that but provided the patient can produce evidence, so sometimes it may be difficult because they won’t bring all these documents around to show that he’s a previously confirmed case.”

The authorities reported 37 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday, 34 of which were locally acquired.

Officials were unable to trace the source of nine infections, including a business traveller who crossed the border from Shenzhen on January 23 and was exempted from quarantine.

Chuang said officials decided to classify the patient as having contracted the virus in Hong Kong, rather than Shenzhen.

“It’s just a temporary classification because we want to prevent further spread so we’ll consider this as a local case management. The investigation of any epidemiological link to Shenzhen or local will continue. So we won’t put a case as imported [until] we have sufficient evidence,” she said.

“As Shenzhen has zero local cases at the moment, the risk is not high.”

Meanwhile, some 20 staff who work at an engineering company in Tuen Mun were being put under quarantine, after two workers there came down with Covid-19. One of the pair flew to South Korea last week and was confirmed with the infection there.

More than 20 other people also tested preliminary positive for the virus.