Coronavirus: Hong Kong records eight imported cases of Covid-19, breaking three-day run of no new infections
- City’s tally rises to 1,063 after group of people who recently returned from Pakistan test positive
- News comes ahead of further relaxation of some social-distancing measures
Hong Kong recorded eight imported cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, with seven of the infected people returning on the same flight from Pakistan, according to health authorities.
But officials were quick to urge the public to avoid jumping to conclusions about any in-flight transmission, as the city prepared to further relax some social-distancing measures.
The cases are the highest daily number in more than a month and take Hong Kong’s total to 1,063. They break a three-day run of zero infections. It has been a week since the last locally transmitted cases were recorded.
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch at the Centre for Health Protection, said all the latest cases involved people returning from Pakistan, with three family clusters. Seven of them returned on the same Qatar Airways Flight 818 on Wednesday.
A 56-year-old father and his two sons, 14 and 22, were among those who tested positive. The father initially displayed no symptoms but developed a cough after he was transferred to the quarantine facility at Chun Yeung Estate in Fo Tan.
Also on the same flight were an 11-year-old girl and her mother, 31, and aunt, 37. Another passenger, a 23-year-old man, also tested positive.
“They were not exactly sitting next to each other,” Chuang said. “But some of them were sitting quite close to each other within a few rows because they are family members.”