'Not Critical To Find Out Who Sparked Bar Clusters'

Health authorities said on Tuesday that it would not be a problem if they could not trace the infection sources of growing clusters centred around two bars in Central, after 14 additional cases linked to the outbreaks were recorded.

Four more customers who visited the Zentral bar have tested positive, while there are 10 more cases linked to Iron Fairies on Hollywood Road.

There are now a total of 27 coronavirus infections linked to Zentral and 32 to Iron Fairies.

Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection said more than 100 customers of each of the bars have yet to undergo compulsory Covid screening, adding that officials are still looking for the infection source.

"I don't think it is very critical whether we can find the source patient. We have 200 cases in the community, [for] everyone behind each case, there is a transmission chain. So we are not worried about a super outbreak. We just want to know how big some clusters are, in order to reduce the transmission," Chuang said.

Separately, health officials reported 27 new cases from schools, involving 20 students and seven members of staff.

The CHP also said a worker at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai is suspected of having contracted the Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1.

The employee had used the staff canteen, just like two other recent patients.

In total, Hong Kong reported 329 new Covid cases on Tuesday, 35 of them imported.

No additional Covid-related deaths were announced.

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