Woman In ICU After Delayed Covid Test Result

Health authorities revealed on Tuesday that a 55-year-old woman was in intensive care after she waited for several days to receive her positive test result for coronavirus.

The woman, who works in a cake shop at the Royal Plaza Hotel in Mong Kok, developed a fever on Monday last week and visited a private doctor two days later.

She submitted a saliva sample for testing to the Hospital Authority on Friday.

The woman, who has an underlying condition, didn’t get her test result back and her symptoms persisted.

She saw a private doctor on Monday this week and was referred to the Prince of Wales Hospital.

The result of a swab test at the hospital came back preliminary positive, while the result of the saliva test carried out three days before also came back positive around the same time.

A chief manager at the Hospital Authority, Dr Sara Ho, conceded that it's taking longer at the moment for test results to come back.

But she said the collection of saliva samples by the authority is aimed at people with no symptoms, and those who are sick should seek medical treatment as quickly as possible.

“There’s been a drastic increase in testing demand in recent days. Last week, we distributed between 20,000 and 30,000 bottles for the collection of specimens every day. The time for the test results to come back is longer,” she said.

The woman was one of a dozen preliminary positive cases reported on Tuesday.

The Centre for Health Protection said there were 12 confirmed coronavirus infections, 11 of which were locally acquired.

Meanwhile, the government announced on Tuesday that it will ease its ban on public gatherings, from two to four people, from midnight.

Last week, the government relaxed certain social distancing measures such as extending evening dine-in at restaurants to 10pm and allowing up to four people to be seated at a table.

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