Coronavirus: Hong Kong records one new case, imported from the US, as city eyes easing of social-distancing rules
- New case brings city’s tally to 1,040, with no local infections reported since April 19
- The infected patient, who is no longer showing symptoms, returned to the city on Monday
The newest case involves a 27-year-old residing in the US who returned to the city in the morning.
While showing no symptoms, she previously experienced loss of smell, a sore throat and a blocked nose for a one-week period from April 11. The patient did not visit a doctor during that time, and had no close contacts.
It has now been more than two weeks since the last locally transmitted infection was reported on April 19, though health officials cautioned against reading too much into that.
“This disease has quite a long incubation period – up to 14 days, and usually we consider two incubation periods as the duration necessary to consider local transmission stopped,” Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said at a press conference.