Mass Test Ordered At Hotel As Two Guests Get Covid

Health officials are to conduct mass testing of several staff and guests at a hotel in Mong Kok after two people staying there caught Covid-19 and one of them died.

The news comes as officials said Hong Kong recorded eight new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, with the source of infection unknown in half of these cases.

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said among the four with no known source, two were guests at the Metropark Hotel – one of whom passed away on Monday – and did not know each other.

The centre's Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said one of the hotel guests was a 70-year-old retired man who came to Hong Kong from Taiwan in mid-July and was planning to travel to the mainland.

She said that other than visiting his mother in Choi Hung Estate and visiting Mong Kok Market, there were no other known activities.

He was staying on the same floor as an 87-year-old man who had been at the hotel for several months and was also planning to go to the mainland.

He reported feeling dizzy last Thursday and was taken to Kwong Wah Hospital as his condition deteriorated. He died in the early hours of Monday, hours after being admitted.

A chief manager for the Hospital Authority, Dr Linda Yu, said respiratory specimens taken post-mortem tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday night.

"I think definitely they would have shared lifts ... and other facilities, maybe, and both of them [would have gone] to nearby places to buy food or go to the restaurants. So there's also chance of other possible source," Chuang said.

Guests and staff who stayed and worked on that floor are to be tested for the virus, the officials said.

Chuang said several mortuary staff also have to be quarantined after they came into contact with the body before the test results came. Officials are also trying to track down ambulance staff and police officers who had helped the 87-year-old before his death.

Training will also be provided to Food and Environmental Hygiene Department staff who have to deal with dead bodies whose causes of death were not immediately known, said Chuang.

She said that the other two cases with no known source are a 61-year-old car mechanic who worked at Transport City Building in Tai Wai, and a 45-year-old man from Tin Hau who did construction work at Disneyland.

Of the four cases with links to previous infections, the CHP confirmed that two more residents from the Hong Chi Lei Muk Shue Hostel for people with intellectual disabilities were confirmed to have contracted the virus, bringing the total number of people in that cluster to 20 – comprising six caretakers and 14 residents.