Hong Kong third wave: Metropark cluster grows, mass testing scheme uncovers possible transmission as city confirms 12 new Covid-19 case
- Authorities announce a new round of testing at Metropark as infections there climb to four
- The number of confirmed cases uncovered by the mass testing scheme, which seeks to identify the city’s invisible coronavirus carriers, now stands at eight
A new Covid-19 cluster surrounding the Metropark Hotel in Mong Kok grew as the city confirmed 12 new cases on Friday, including two newly detected by Hong Kong’s ongoing mass testing scheme.
Officials revealed that one possible hidden transmission chain was uncovered through the scheme after one member of a symptomless couple who tested positive was found to have had contact with a previous confirmed case.
One-third of the cases in the latest tally were uncovered through the community-wide screening – two on Friday, and another two the previous day – taking the total number of infections confirmed under the scheme to eight so far.
Five of Friday’s cases were imported and two were local transmissions, while the remaining one was a resident of the Metropark, pushing the city’s total confirmed cases to 4,850, with 94 related deaths. Another Metropark resident was also among a handful of people to test preliminary positive on Friday, including some from the citywide testing, pending confirmation.
The new Metropark cases took the total number of infections at the hotel to four.
“So far, residents in three rooms on the same floor are infected and they do not know each other. We are worried there might be a further outbreak,” said Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch.
All residents of the hotel will be tested, she said, while nine to 10 rooms will be evacuated, and all cleaning staff serving the floor where the infections were identified will be quarantined.
The Metropark Hotel has 430 modestly priced rooms that some guests rent for extended periods. The hotel’s restaurant recorded a cluster of six infections in July.
The new cluster was first discovered on Wednesday, when two residents who did not know each other tested positive, one of whom was an 87-year-old man who was only found to have the virus after his death.
Meanwhile, the two new cases identified on Friday via the Beijing-backed mass testing scheme, which began on Tuesday, included a 67-year-old retired woman living with her family in Jordan.
“She did not undergo many activities, but will sometimes go to a market in Yau Ma Tei,” Chuang said.
The woman had suffered a fever between August 18 and 22, and diarrhoea on August 22, but her symptoms later subsided and she recovered without seeking medical help. The woman then went in for the universal testing when it began on September 1.
The other invisible carrier detected under the testing programme was a housewife living in Fanling. Chuang said she had a fever on Wednesday after giving her sample on Tuesday.
The patient’s husband, who worked as a security guard in the Transport City Building in Tai Wai, also tested preliminary positive and was admitted to hospital.
Chuang said the husband had an interaction with a previously confirmed patient who was a tenant in his building in August. The tenant was confirmed to be infected this Tuesday.
“They did not wear masks as they talked for more than 10 minutes,” Chuang said. “This could be a possible route of transmission, and we would distribute saliva bottles to the whole building.”
Friday’s tally came after six residents were found to be infected during the first batch of 128,000 people tested under the programme on Thursday.
Of those, four had previously recovered from Covid-19 and were discharged from hospital last month, but still carried traces of the coronavirus in their system.
The government said that by Friday morning, around 80,000 more samples had been tested, bringing the total number of tested samples to around 208,000.
Friday’s five imported cases involved returnees from Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines, according to Chuang.