Hong Kong fourth wave: mandatory testing of residents in about 70 more buildings, as 56 new coronavirus cases logged

Health authorities expand screening in hard-hit Yau Tsim Mong district to include even buildings where no cases are found

Too early to discuss easing social-distancing rules, Undersecretary for Food and Health Dr Chui Tak-yi says

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Workers check the sewage of an old tenement building as part of an effort to track the spread of the coronavirus in Jordan, Hong Kong. Photo: EPA-EFE

Elizabeth Cheung,Tony CheungandJeffie Lam

Published: 10:58am, 19 Jan 2021Updated: 6:42am, 20 Jan 2021

Hong Kong health authorities have ordered mandatory Covid-19 testing for residents of around 70 buildings in the Yau Tsim Mong district even if no new infections are found in them, in a ramped-up effort to contain a worsening outbreak that is threatening to engulf the wider community.

Officials on Tuesday said citywide social-distancing measures would be extended for at least another week, as they reported that 31 out of 56 newly confirmed infections came from the stricken district which is home to many ethnic minority families crammed into old tenement buildings.

Undersecretary for Food and Health Dr Chui Tak-yi said it was still too early to talk about relaxing social-distancing measures, including bans on public gatherings of more than two people and dine-in services at restaurants after 6pm.

“There are some prerequisites if we hope to significantly relax the measures, such as if the number of local cases drop to single digits and can be maintained for a period of time,” Chui said. “Currently there is still some distance from this indicator. I believe it is too early to talk about whether we would relax those measures.”

Residents register for Covid-19 tests at a mobile testing station in Jordan. Photo: EPA-EFE

Twenty-three of Tuesday’s new cases were untraceable, and only one was imported. Fifteen of the new local cases came from a crowded Yau Tsim Mong neighbourhood that has been placed under tougher testing requirements since Saturday.