Virus Found In HKU Lab After Worker Tests Positive

The Centre for Health Protection says it has found significant traces of the Covid-19 virus in a University of Hong Kong public health laboratory after one of its employees tested positive.

The centre announced late on Sunday that 14 of 37 environmental swabs taken from the lab at HKU's school of public health were found to contain the virus. The laboratory had been examining samples of the coronavirus that were not infectious.

More than 40 colleagues of the woman, who was confirmed to have the disease on Saturday, have been placed into quarantine, though none of them have so far tested positive for the virus.

Health officials have played down the possibility that the woman was infected in the laboratory, saying there was no evidence to suggest she was. Staff there have been tested weekly as a precaution.

Hong Kong reported 23 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, all but four of which were imported.