Tenement Block Covid Outbreak Doubles In Size

A Covid outbreak at an old tenement block in Jordan rapidly expanded on Tuesday, as 10 more residents living in partitioned flats there were confirmed to be infected.

This took the total number of cases at the block on Reclamation Street to 21, while

four other residents tested preliminary positive for the virus.

Some of the those infected worked at construction sites for the Lam Tin-Tseung Kwan O Tunnel, the third runway at the airport, and the new Central Kowloon Route highway project, which have all been hit by coronavirus outbreaks of their own.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection said all residents living in the block would be ordered to undergo coronavirus tests.

“The Reclamation Street 20, 22, 24 and 26 are in a whole block but in four buildings. The buildings are connected to each other in the corridors that they can walk through… so we will order compulsory testing notice for all the residents in these four buildings essentially in one block … because they are traditional types of buildings,” she said.

“I don’t have the exact number of residents in the whole block because I understand some of them have quite a number of people living in one unit.”

Health authorities reported a total of 60 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday.

All of the infections were locally acquired, 13 of them via unknown sources.