Mandatory Testing At Covid-hit Wong Tai Sin Block

Health officials on Monday raised alert over a possible Covid-19 outbreak at another public housing block, requiring residents there to test for the virus.

Two more residents who live in Kwai Tung House at Tung Tau Estate in Wong Tai Sin have come down with the disease, taking the total number of residents infected there to nine.

They live in six different units. Three of the affected units, located on different floors, face the same direction.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection said she was worried the virus was transmitted through pipes and drainage at the housing block.

She said experts including Hong Kong University microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung has visited the building to investigate.

Chuang also said she is worried about a Covid-19 outbreak at a boarding house for foreign domestic helpers in Tai Po after two maids who stayed there over the weekend came down with the disease. Several other foreign domestic helpers who visited the dormitory also tested preliminary positive for the virus.

Health authorities on Monday reported 82 new coronavirus cases. Seventy-seven are locally acquired infections, of which 37 have unknown sources.

And a 49-year-old coronavirus patient with a chronic condition has died. He was asymptomatic when he was taken to a temporary medical facility for Covid-19 patients on Lantau on December 8. But he was transferred to the United Christian Hospital the next day after he developed symptoms.