Coronavirus Hong Kong: authorities pause AstraZeneca vaccine delivery and order partial evacuation of residential building in Tuen Mun
- Health authorities confirm 14 new Covid-19 cases, all but two of which are imported
- As many as 50 people were ordered to leave Oi Fai House at Yau Oi Estate after pipes at infected woman’s flat suspected of transmitting the virus to families below
The health minister told lawmakers of the move on Friday as the city confirmed 14 new Covid-19 cases, most of which were imported. Of the two local cases, one was detected in a quarantine centre and the other was untraceable.
About 10 preliminary-positive cases were also being investigated. Among them were a 66-year-old man and a six-year-old boy who live in Oi Fai House in Tuen Mun’s Yau Oi Estate, where two infections had previously been confirmed.
After visiting the building in the evening, Professor Yuen Kwok-yung from the University of Hong Kong and an adviser to the government on its pandemic response, suggested residents who lived in “flat 09” on all floors be evacuated. About 50 residents were affected, according to sources.
Yuen suspected the coronavirus had spread through pipes running from the flat on the 23rd floor where an infected woman lived down to the flat of the 66-year-old living directly below her, and then to the young boy who resided on the 21st floor. Health authorities subsequently endorsed Yuen’s recommendation.
The new infections push Hong Kong’s Covid-19 case tally to 11,562, while the number of related fatalities is now at 207 following the deaths on Friday of a 69-year-old man and an 83-year-old woman.