Woman, 20, Dies Two Days After Quarantine Ends

Health officials said on Saturday that a 20-year-old woman has died two days after she completed a mandatory 14-day home quarantine, although samples from her body tested negative for the Covid-19 virus.

The Centre for Health Protection said that the woman returned to Hong Kong from Denmark on March 19 and she had been in mandatory home quarantine since then.

It said the woman was rushed to hospital by ambulance on Saturday morning after falling ill and was declared dead there. Officials said she'd had a fever during the latter days of her quarantine period, but didn't report it to the authorities.

The centre's Chuang Shuk-kwan said throat and rectal samples from the body tested negative for Covid-19. The case has now been passed on to the coroner who will decide whether an autopsy is required.

But she refused to confirm some media reports that her family had provided some Chinese medicine during the quarantine.

Chuang said the centre was also investigating how a 93-year-old stroke patient who spent most of the past month at a public hospital in Yuen Long was infected with Covid-19.

Chuang revealed that another patient who spent time close to the 93-year-old at Pok Oi Hospital had tested positive, after earlier screenings showed negative results.

The 33-year-old patient, who has been to the UK and France, was the 455th case in Hong Kong and classified as "imported" by the authorities.

The Hospital Authority is tracing medics and patients who'd come into contact with the pair for testing.