Hong Kong third wave: city tops 4,000 Covid-19 cases as 69 new infections recorded on Saturday amid ‘small outbreaks’
- The newly reported infections, almost all of which were locally transmitted, include ones tied to clusters at MTR depot and a container terminal
- While numbers have dipped in recent days the ‘actual number [of infections] is still very high’, warns top health officials
But while the number of new cases has dipped recently, clusters of infections have expanded to more sectors, including people working at the MTR depot in Kowloon Bay as well as the Kwai Chung Container Terminal, where health officials suggested “small outbreaks” may have occurred.
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection, said it was no time for the public to lower their guard.
“Although the number of new infections has slightly decreased, the actual number is still very high”, she said at an afternoon press conference. “There is no place for complacency on social-distancing rules.”
Chuang also stressed it was unclear if the city had passed its peak of infections, as the number of new cases each day still exceeded tallies from the second wave of infections in March.
The city’s overall case total now stands at 4,007, with 47 related deaths. Another 40 to 50 preliminary positives were also recorded on Saturday, officials said, along with two imported infections, both returned from India.
Among the new clusters identified by health authorities was one involving five staff members of the MTR Kowloon Bay Depot, some of whom were previously announced as infected.
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According to the MTR Corp, of its seven employees confirmed infected since mid-July, four worked at the Kowloon Bay location. Three worked across two different teams in the depot’s train repair workshop, while the most recent case, identified on Saturday, worked in the infrastructure maintenance department as a driver.
The remaining employee referenced by health officials is believed to have worked at the company’s Kowloon Bay headquarters.
The railway operator said it would maintain close contact with the Centre for Health Protection in order to understand why the depot infections were being considered an “outbreak”, and would look into conducting voluntary testing for all staff at the Kowloon Bay facility.
At the container terminal in Kwai Chung, meanwhile, at least four people were involved, including a truck driver confirmed on Saturday. Two other drivers and a logistics worker were reported infected earlier.
“Some of them shared facilities for changing. Maybe that’s where they gathered together and caused transmission,” Chuang said.
Also among Saturday’s 67 new locally transmitted cases were two carers from the elderly care home King Fok Limited, as well as a resident of Jockey Club Harmony Villa in Wong Chuk Hang. Both facilities had previously reported infections.
Other new cases included a Chinese medicine practitioner, who last saw two patients at his Mong Kok clinic on Thursday. Another case was also linked to Star Global, a direct selling store on Argyle Street now linked to 59 infections.
Public hospitals also reported a number of preliminary positive cases. Among them was a cluster of three patients in a medical and geriatric ward in Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan.
The trio, aged 64 to 78, initially tested negative for the virus on August 5 but were found positive on Saturday following subsequent screening.
Two of them were previously identified as close contacts of an earlier confirmed case in the ward and were sent into isolation on Wednesday.
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The remaining patient stayed in another cubicle in the same ward. The hospital was investigating whether the infection of the three patients was connected to the earlier confirmed case.
Meanwhile, a patient staying in a general ward at Yan Chai Hospital in Tsuen Wan, who was also found positive only after a second test on Saturday.
A nurse who worked in the accident and emergency department of Tuen Mun Hospital also tested positive after reporting a low fever while working on Saturday morning.
At Sha Tin Market, a staff member at a shop named Toko Sukojadi also tested initially positive. Chuang said more investigation would be needed to ascertain whether the shop, which bore a name believed to be Indonesian, had links with previously infected foreign domestic workers.
Saturday’s updates came as the government continued to make preparations to begin offering free Covid-19 tests for every Hong Kong resident, part of a massive voluntary programme that will launch in two weeks. The scheme, which comes amid the city’s worst coronavirus outbreak yet, involves the help of medical experts from mainland China.
University of Hong Kong microbiologist Professor Yuen Kwok-yung on Saturday said the community testing programme was a good policy, but stressed the most important thing was to employ correct sampling methods.
He also predicted a vaccine was still as long as nine to 12 months away, and urged the public to continue working hard in the fight against the pandemic.
