Dozens of Hong Kong university laboratory staff in quarantine after environmental samples test positive for coronavirus

The worrying development came as the city’s number of new coronavirus infections surged to their highest level in nearly a month on Sunday, with most of the 23 latest cases imported. The government suspended all Air India flights and a regional Cathay Dragon route after several of their passengers tested positive.

The quarantine order affected 41 workers at the laboratory under the University of Hong Kong’s school of public health. The Centre for Health Protection said late on Sunday 14 out 37 environmental swabs had come back positive. The facility is on the sixth floor of the Laboratory Block on Sassoon Road in Pok Fu Lam, according to a source.

The researcher, who was revealed as infected on Saturday, helps with data entry and analysis of genetic sequencing of the coronavirus. Her case was classified by health authorities as untraced as she dealt with samples that were not contagious. Six people, including immediate team members of the woman and her friends, were initially deemed close contacts and placed in quarantine.

The university’s Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine said at the time there was no proof the infection was related to the laboratory, noting the woman’s other team members had been given the all-clear.

Health authorities have distributed hundreds of specimen bottles to people working in the same building.

Sunday’s high number of imported cases led health experts to urge authorities to better monitor passengers coming from high-risk countries, especially those who changed flights at cities not on the list. Hong Kong currently requires arrivals to declare whether they have visited any of 10 nations in that category over the past two weeks.