Tsim Sha Tsui Building Evacuated In Fear Of Variant

The Centre for Health Protection on Monday evening sent residents of all 40 flats at a building in Tsim Sha Tsui to quarantine, after a woman who lives there tested preliminary positive for the N501Y coronavirus variant.

The housewife, 28, arrived from India last month and spent three weeks in quarantine at Regal Oriental Hotel, before returning home on April 25.

After an inconclusive test on Friday, she was tested again in hospital on Sunday and the result came back preliminary positive.

She also tested positive for Covid antibodies, and was listed as an imported case.

Officials said they're concerned that the virus might have been spread to other residents of Beauty Mansion on Kimberly Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. They are to be evacuated and spend the next 21 days in quarantine.

Separately, the centre said it would issue mandatory testing notices for people who on April 11 visited a shopping mall and a restaurant in Tung Chung – namely Citygate Outlets and Curry Lounge – after finding out that at least two people who had caught the N501Y variant locally went to those two places that day.