Private Kitchen Cluster Continues To Grow

Health authorities said on Wednesday that six more people who visited a private kitchen in Kwun Tong have now been infected with Covid, raising the total to 26.

That accounted for more than half of the 45 visitors and four staff who were at the premises in Shing Yip Industrial Building on May 9.

"We now know that there were people who went to the venue and attended gatherings. There were chats, there was eating, and they were taking off their masks," Albert Au from the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) told a daily Covid briefing.

"Whether we will take further action, that depends on whether we have the evidence to prove that there are certain parties which have provided misrepresentation to authorised persons. If so, we will seriously follow up and we will refer the case to the law enforcement department."

Meanwhile, six more people linked to the Sky Cuisine restaurant in Sheung Wan have been confirmed to have Covid-19, bringing the total number of infections to 70.

Au said genome sequences of cases found in the cluster and nearby Sai Wan Estate were "almost identical", adding that health officials could not rule out the possibility that the outbreak at the eatery had stemmed from a staff member who lives in the estate and might have caught the virus there.

Three additional customers of TamJai Yunnan Mixian in Tung Chung have come down with the virus, while a Hung Hom snooker club cluster saw one more case.

In total, Hong Kong reported 329 new Covid infections, including 31 imported cases, and four more Covid-related deaths.

The controller of the CHP, Edwin Tsui, said infection numbers will likely fluctuate following the relaxation of social distancing measures.

He called on people not to be too fixated on the daily caseload, adding that authorities are assessing the coronavirus situation according to a basket of indices.