TST Bar Patrons To Be Quarantined Amid Covid Scare

Health authorities say they will quarantine staff and patrons of a bar in Tsim Sha Tsui who were present at the same time as a 22-year-old student who was confirmed on Saturday to have Covid-19.

Four staff and seven customers of the China Secret bar have been located so far, and the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Sunday it was looking for more people who might have been affected.

The CHP’s Chuang Shuk-kwan says they've taken action because there's reason to believe that a visitor from Thailand who was diagnosed with the virus last week had also been at the bar.

"There is some circumstantial information suggesting that she had visited that place so if that is the case, we have two cases who had visited there. That's why, as a precautionary measure, we don't want to delay the investigation and the (implementation of) control measures," Chuang added.

Meanwhile, health authorities are asking their Thai counterparts and the police here to help work out how another local woman contracted the coronavirus.

The 27-year-old housewife told the CHP that she twice went shopping in Tsim Sha Tsui with an acquaintance from Thailand who, she said, has since tested positive in her home country.

Chuang says while it's possible that the housewife was infected by this friend, officials need more information and they’re seeking confirmation from Thai authorities.

“According to her, the friend has been confirmed in Thailand, but we are still verifying the information with the Thai health authorities and I have no idea when that Thai friend came to Hong Kong… we could not locate or identify the name or personal particulars of that Thai friend at the moment”, she said.

This latest case is one of two new local Covid-19 infections reported in Hong Kong on Sunday – with the other being a close contact of a previous patient.

There are also three imported cases, with the patients coming from Nepal and Russia. The centre reported more than ten preliminary positive cases.