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Gigi Choy

Hong Kong confirmed on Thursday its first community Covid-19 case involving the more infectious Delta variant, ending a 16-day streak of zero local cases.
The infection involving a strain growing in worldwide prominence raises alarm bells ahead of a planned shortening of mandatory quarantine for some arrivals to the city.
How worried should we be about the latest infection?
The 27-year-old man had no recent travel history and was carrying a mutant strain of the coronavirus known as L452R.
The L452R mutation is linked to several coronavirus variants, including the Delta one that was first reported in India.
Probable Delta variant case breaks 16-day run of zero local infections
It is on the way to becoming the dominant global strain, according to the World Health Organization.
Centre for Health Protection (CHP) controller Dr Ronald Lam Man-kin urged people to get vaccinated as soon as possible, warning of the higher transmissibility, severity of illnesses and viral load associated with the Delta variant.
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of CHP’s communicable disease branch, said research in Britain showed the variant was 60 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha one first detected in that country.
In Singapore, more Delta patients ended up in intensive care or with pneumonia than other Covid-19 sufferers.
Professor Gabriel Leung, dean of the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) medical school, said the Delta strain was “many times more worrying” because of its high transmissibility.




It is about seven times more transmissible compared with the original strain initially detected in Wuhan, Leung notes. That means each infected person with the Delta variant can on average spread it to between six and eight others, rather than the two or three associated with the original.
“This is a very, very important reason why we should be hyper, hyper concerned and vigilant,” Leung said. “Once you let it go it will completely predominate … so we must be very careful.”

Leung pointed out the Delta variant had now become the predominant strain in Britain despite it first being detected in India.
“It has completely replaced the Alpha variant and the original strain [from Wuhan], and now makes up 95 per cent plus of all circulating strains in the UK,” he said, adding the rapid spread of Delta variant cases resulted in Britain delaying plans of easing lockdown restrictions by a month.
How did the patient catch the virus?
Health authorities said the man – who was not vaccinated against Covid-19 — worked for an airline as a member of ground staff and his duties included dealing with cargo flight crews. He last went to work at Hong Kong airport a week ago.
The 27-year-old also held a part-time position providing customer services at Uptown Plaza in Tai Po, where he last reported for duty on Tuesday.

Although the source of infection is still being investigated, officials believe the man is likely to have contracted the virus at his workplace because of the regular contact he had there with passengers, pilots and flight crews.
“As we do not have any variant cases in the community so far, we would suspect that he has some connection with overseas or imported cases. We think that the place where he got the infection is more likely at the airport,” Chuang said.
Do vaccines work against variant strains of the coronavirus?
HKU microbiologist Dr Ho Pak-leung said the efficacy rate of the German-made BioNTech vaccine, one of the two currently available in Hong Kong, against the Delta variant was around 90 per cent.
Cathay Pacific makes Covid-19 vaccinations for Hong Kong crews a must
The data on the effectiveness of China’s Sinovac jab against the variant, however, remained unclear, but Ho said he believed the vaccine should also offer protection.
Health authorities said British studies showed that two doses of the BioNTech vaccine provided 90 per cent protection against hospitalisation, and 80 per cent versus symptomatic infections.
Is this a repeat of what happened in Singapore?
An outbreak linked to Singapore’s Changi Airport ballooned to more than 100 people, and became the largest active cluster in the city state.
Aviation authorities later said preliminary investigations indicated initial transmission occurred when a worker assisted a family from South Asia who arrived in Singapore on April 29 and later tested positive for Covid-19.

Asked if the airport worker’s infection in Hong Kong would lead to a similar outbreak to the one in Singapore, Chuang said health authorities had “done [their] best” to track down those linked to the infected man, quarantining close contacts of his household members as a precaution for curbing the spread of the virus.
Coronavirus: are antibody tests the best indicator of immunity from infection?
“We understand from our neighbouring countries and places, such as Singapore, Taiwan and even the mainland, that such outbreaks may easily occur because of the high transmissibility of the Delta strain,” Chuang said. “Hopefully we won’t start another outbreak.”
Should the government relax its border controls as planned?
Under proposed revisions to Hong Kong’s strict quarantine arrangements for arrivals, fully vaccinated travellers from lower-risk places would only need to isolate for seven days if they tested positive for coronavirus antibodies.
Hong Kong detects first suspected local case of Delta Covid-19 variant
Lam of the CHP said health experts backed the measures, after balancing the risks and benefits, on the basis they would encourage people to get vaccinated.
“It is not merely a seven-day type of control. We also requested inbound travellers to add on seven more days of self-monitoring, with more frequent testing during both the quarantine and self-monitoring period,” he said.




Lam added there were enhanced surveillance systems in place at the airport, with more than 68,000 tests carried out since May last year.
More than 70,000 airport employees were ordered to undergo Covid-19 screening in February. The Airport Authority also offered weekly testing on a voluntary basis to staff beginning in March.


Siddharth Sridhar, clinical assistant professor of microbiology at HKU, said the government should go ahead with the relaxation of the mandatory quarantine period for lower-risk areas to send the message that it had confidence in Covid-19 vaccines.
“Countries with high vaccination rates can still push towards normality even if they have active community Covid-19 outbreaks as rates of severe disease are markedly reduced. If Hong Kong’s vaccination rate lags behind, we will be stuck in the current limbo for the foreseeable future,” he said.




But Dr Leung Chi-chiu, a respiratory medicine expert, warned the new rules could have “disastrous” consequences, noting some overseas locations had experienced a surge in cases after relaxing social-distancing measures on the back of an inoculation roll-out.
He said the 27-year-old man’s infection exposed a loophole in the cities’ border defences and urged authorities to step up controls to contain a possible spread of Covid-19 variants in the community.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Cheung


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A 27-year-old airport worker is the first case in the community involving the Delta variant
The variant is gaining international prominence and known to be more infectious, but what level of threat does it really pose to Hong Kong?



A 27-year-old airport worker is the first Covid-19 case in the community involving the Delta variant, which is gaining international prominence and known to be more infectious.


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