Major Outbreak Feared At Tseung Kwan O Building Site

Health authorities have ordered around 900 people working at a construction site in Tseung Kwan O to get tested for coronavirus over fears of a major outbreak there.

This comes as authorities reported 82 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, 23 of them involving infections via unknown sources.

Thirty-two cases are linked to dance gatherings involving studios across the city, while 17 cases are related to other previous infections.

Three of the latest confirmed patients work at a construction site at the residential development, LOHAS Park. Eight other people who work there have tested preliminary positive for the virus.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said it is easy for the virus to be spread at a building site.

“There are a lot of person-to-person contacts in the construction site. Not everyone can wear a mask because it’s quite hot sometimes. Sometimes, they work in an enclosed environment. So it is not unexpected that transmission may occur in this setting,” she said.

The CHP also noted that a number of staff and customers at a Tsim Sha Tsui restaurant, Pine Tree Hill Seafood, came down with the disease recently. Authorities are ordering people who visited the restaurant in the past two weeks to get tested for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, another doctor at Queen Elizabeth Hospital has become infected. He is a colleague of a doctor who was confirmed with the infection earlier. The Hospital Authority said both of them work in a laboratory and didn't come into contact with patients.

A substitute teacher who worked at West Island School and Chan Nam Cheong Memorial School has also caught the virus.

An outbreak at a care home for disabled people in Shau Kei Wan has expanded, with eight more people there testing preliminary positive for the virus. This brings the total number of people affected at the home to 13.

Hong Kong also recorded another 10 infections linked to overseas travel.