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Coronavirus pandemic
Hong KongHealth & Environment

Hong Kong third wave: dozens of domestic workers exposed to infected pair, officials say, as city confirms 95 new Covid-19 cases

  • One helper lived with numerous fellow migrant workers in at least three dormitory-style settings over an 11-day period
  • While Thursday marked a fourth straight day with fewer than 100 infections, health experts still fear a potential outbreak in the helper community

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Foreign domestic helpers share a dormitory room at the Technic Employment Service Centre in Causeway Bay. Health officials this week discovered an Indonesian woman with Covid-19 had lived in at least three group settings recently. Photo: Sam Tsang
Victor TingandGigi Choy
As many as 51 foreign domestic helpers have come into contact with a pair of maids whose infections sparked fears of a wider outbreak in their employers’ households and the migrant worker community at large, Hong Kong health authorities revealed on Thursday, as they confirmed 95 new Covid-19 infections.

The fresh cases, which bring the city’s total to 3,849, marked the fourth straight day with fewer than 100 – still significantly higher than during March’s second wave, which peaked at 65. More than 60 people also tested preliminary positive on Thursday and are awaiting further test results.

A day earlier, health officials mounted a track-and-trace operation after it emerged that an Indonesian maid infected with Covid-19 had shared often crowded accommodation with numerous other workers, some of whom had since moved into their employers’ homes.

On Thursday, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said authorities had identified another 13 domestic workers who had stayed with the Indonesian national in a North Point dormitory managed by Sunlight Employment Agency on July 20 and 21.

The patient, who left her employer on July 20 to look for a new job, went on to stay at accommodation arranged by the KL Home Care agency at the Fook Gay Mansion in Wan Chai from July 21 to 25 along with 28 other domestic workers.

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