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A worker in full protective gear disinfects Luk Chuen House at Lek Yuen Estate in Sha Tin. Photo: Sam Tsang

Coronavirus: Hongkonger living in public housing at centre of infection cluster confirmed as infected

  • Next-door neighbour of first infected resident of Luk Chuen House at Lek Yuen Estate in Sha Tin becomes city’s 1,109th Covid-19 case
  • The 33-year-old man was admitted to Prince of Wales Hospital on June 4 with fever

A Hongkonger from public housing at the centre of a coronavirus cluster was confirmed as infected on Saturday, taking the infection tally there to nine and the city’s Covid-19 total to 1,109.

A top health expert said the latest infection was suspected to be from airborne transmission, but a government official said they would not at this stage evacuate more residents from Luk Chuen House at Lek Yuen Estate in Sha Tin.

The 33-year-old, who lived in room 810 on the eighth floor of the building, was admitted to Prince of Wales Hospital with fever on June 4, the day nearly 100 residents living in units 10 and 12 across multiple floors of the same building were sent to quarantine at the nearby Chun Yeung Estate in Fo Tan.

The man’s saliva, nasal and stool samples came back negative for the coronavirus, but a bronchoscopy test returned positive.

He is the next-door neighbour of the 34-year-old woman, of room 812, who was the first to be confirmed as infected in the building.

Health officials revealed the man lived with his two brothers and mother and rarely went out. During the quarantine period, the two brothers developed a fever but recovered without infection, while the mother was unaffected.

The three members of the 33-year-old's family remain at the quarantine centre.

Disinfection works on May 31 at Luk Chuen House in Lek Yuen Estate, Sha Tin, where nine cases have been confirmed. Photo: Sam Tsang

Dr Yuen Kwok-yung, a University of Hong Kong microbiologist, visited Luk Chuen House on Saturday afternoon along with Undersecretary for the Environment Tse Chin-wan to evaluate the infection situation in rooms 810 and 812.

Yuen, who is also a government adviser, said the 33-year-old man only testing positive in a bronchoscopy test could mean he was infected in his lungs by aerosol nuclei smaller than 5 micrometers, instead of through regular, larger droplets.

“Usually for infected cases, a patient’s deep-throat saliva or nasal swab tests would return positive. But for this case he has tested negative,” Yuen said.

Beijing district on ‘wartime’ alert after fresh coronavirus outbreak

“We are worried whether there are tiny viral particles existing in Luk Chuen House which infected the patient’s lungs but not his upper respiratory system.”

Experts have been looking into other potential routes of transmission besides the possibility the infection spread via facilities such as postboxes or lift buttons, according to Tse.

“We suspect there could be small bits of damage to the pipes which are invisible to the bare eye,” Tse said.

“When negative pressure is generated by an exhaust fan, some droplets could have leaked through these cracks [on the pipes] as tiny particles.”

Dr Ho Pak-leung, another HKU microbiologist, had earlier called for evacuation of residents from the entire eighth floor of the building, a suggestion the government did not accept.

On Saturday, a 40-year-old was discharged from hospital, bringing the total number of recuperated Covid-19 patients to 1,061. Four coronavirus patients have died so far in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Jockey Club announced on Saturday they planned to reopen most off-course betting branches on non-race days, with up to 80,000 customers expected to visit each day.

Jockey Club CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges also said in his blog he saw a “realistic chance” of the Mark Six lottery – which has been suspended from early February amid the pandemic – resuming after the racing season ends on 15 July.

He added the lottery would be limited to one draw per week under initial plans to “spread out the number of customers visiting”.

Additional reporting by Lilian Cheng and Elizabeth Cheung

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: ninth case of covid-19 at estate in sha tin
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