1 COVID-19 case found

May 22, 2021

(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

 

The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating one additional COVID-19 case involving a 29-year-old Indonesian domestic helper.

 

She arrived in Hong Kong on April 25 and stayed in a quarantine hotel until May 16. After she left the hotel, she stayed with her employer until May 20.

 

Centre for Health Protection Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan told a press briefing today that the helper is being considered as a possible local case with an unknown source of infection.

 

“The positive antibodies signify that she had been infected for more than 10 days or longer.

 

“So it is very likely that she had been infected while she was in Indonesia but it went unnoticed.

 

“Of course, there are other possibilities such that she may have acquired the infection at the airport or on the plane.

 

“On the aeroplane, we found that there were another three cases on the same flight, but they did not sit close to her.

 

“For the hotel, we have not found any other cases who stayed on the same floor. We check the staff weekly and the last test was on May 18. They were all negative.”

 

Dr Chuang also reported that there are less than five preliminary positive COVID-19 cases, including a locally infected one involving a 39-year-old Indonesian domestic helper.

 

“She stayed in a temporary residence provided by her agent and in the same flat there were four other domestic helpers. They will be treated as close contacts and put under quarantine and tested. So far, we have not heard of any positive case among them.

 

“It would be treated as an unlinked local case at the moment.”

 

Dr Chuang said if this case is confirmed, it would signify there are still hidden transmission chains in the community.

 

The 39-year-old helper had also visited the Foreign Domestic Helpers Section on 3/F, Immigration Tower on May 7 and 20 for her visa application.

 

The Immigration Department has conducted thorough cleaning and sterilisation of the office concerned.

 

Two residential buildings where the preliminary positive cases had stayed and a kindergarten where an outbreak of upper respiratory tract infection had occurred are included in the compulsory testing notice.

 

The Government will set up a mobile specimen collection station tomorrow outside 37-39 Fuk Wing Street, Sham Shui Po for the building's residents and workers subject to compulsory testing.

 

For information and health advice on COVID-19, visit the Government's dedicated webpage.

 

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