Two more people diagnosed with dengue fever in Hong Kong, raising total to 26 cases this year
Centre for Health Protection controller describes local outbreak of mosquito-borne disease as ‘very quick’ and ‘unprecedented’
Two more people were diagnosed with dengue fever on Saturday, bringing the total number of people in Hong Kong who have contracted the mosquito-borne virus locally to 26 this year, the health authorities said.
The latest updates meant nine of the local cases either live on or had visited the island of Cheung Chau, while the remaining 17 had gone to the popular Lion Rock Park or Wong Tai Sin, the district where the park is located, since the first case was reported on August 14.
Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said on Sunday hygiene officials would go to Cheung Chau starting Monday to spray insecticide around all homes and schools, before the new academic year begins on September 3.
Workers had already been doing this within 500 metres of each Cheung Chau patient’s home.
“We will expand work to cover the whole island,” Cheung said. The island has over 24,000 residents according to the most recent census, and is popular with weekend day trippers who want to go hiking or eat seafood.
A 39-year-old woman who lives on Sai Wan Road on the island is one of the newly confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne disease. She works as a cleaner at Salesian Retreat House on Cheung Chau, and recalled being bitten by mosquitoes at her workplace and home.