Mass Covid Testing For Hung Hom Hotel Staff

Health authorities have ordered more than 200 staff at a hotel in Hung Hom to get tested for Covid-19 after another staff member there came down with the infection.

Officials said a customer service officer at the Harbourfront Horizon has contracted the virus following the infection of a repairman there.

The two staff had not come into close contact.

Last month, more than 80 security guards of the hotel were sent to a quarantine centre after six guards tested positive.

Albert Au from the Centre for Health Protection said the risk facing hotel guests is low, but cannot be ruled out.

"All the affected cases involved staff of the hotel. No resident is affected so far. According to information from the hotel, the staff wore masks during work so the infection risk from the staff to the residents is low, although we cannot totally rule out there’s a possibility,” he said.

“We issue a compulsory testing order to test all the staff first to see if there are other cases. We previously distributed specimen bottles to the hotel for testing all the residents 10 days ago. No new cases arise from the residents. We will closely monitor the situation.”

Health authorities reported 22 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, 19 of which are locally acquired.

Officials were unable to trace the source of 10 cases.

More than 30 other people have tested preliminary positive, including a housewife who lives in a private residential block in Tuen Mun.

She was tested during an overnight lockdown at Tower 1 of Goodview Garden.

Au said she lives directly above a worker who contracted the virus at a construction site of the airport’s third runway.

More than 2,500 people were tested in the overnight operations in Tuen Mun, Chai Wan and To Kwa Wan.