Port Firm Staff To Be Quarantined Over Covid Scare

Health authorities say around 120 staff of a company operating at the Kwai Chung Container Terminal will have to be moved to quarantine.

Eight of the employees at Wang Kee Port Operation Services Limited have become infected with Covid-19 over the past few days, and another five have tested preliminary positive for the coronavirus.

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) says it's investigating why so many of its workers came down with the virus, adding that one likely source of transmission may be a communal area, which has beds for people to rest on.

This comes as Hong Kong confirms 46 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, with 39 of them being locally transmitted infections.

While 27 of the patients were linked to previous cases, authorities have been unable to trace the source of infections for 12 of them.

Despite a gradual drop in the number of local infections, the CHP’s Chuang Shuk-kwan stressed there’s no room yet to ease the social distancing measures that are currently in place.

“The actual number of cases is still quite high at the moment … many of them are without an actual source that can be found. I think we still have silent transmission in the community and with any relaxing of social distancing measures, that may cause a huge rebound in cases”, she said.

The city also reported seven imported Covid-19 cases, with the patients coming from the Philippines, India, and Australia via Singapore.

Meanwhile, two more elderly Covid patients have died, bringing the territory's death toll from the virus to 69.

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