Coronavirus: Hong Kong confirms 17 new imported Covid-19 cases, mostly linked to single cargo ship from Indonesia

Friday’s caseload, which includes arrivals from Azerbaijan and Lithuania, is the highest daily total since April 18

Health experts warn bigger risk could lie ahead when steady flow of fully vaccinated domestic workers begin arriving from Philippines and Indonesia

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One-off clusters of cases involving cargo ships are not the biggest concern, experts say. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 10:42pm, 27 Aug 2021Updated: 9:09pm, 15 Sep 2021

Hong Kong confirmed a double-digit number of Covid-19 cases for the first time in two months on Friday, all imported with most on a coronavirus-hit cargo ship that arrived from Indonesia.

Health experts said they believed the ship cluster was a one-off incident but warned a bigger danger could lie ahead when a steady flow of fully vaccinated foreign domestic workers began arriving from Monday from the Philippines and Indonesia, countries listed as high-risk for Covid-19.

Their warnings were in sharp contrast to complaints from a domestic helper employers’ group which criticised the daily arrivals quota of 20 workers, saying it was too low and insufficient to plug shortages in the city.

Friday’s 17 coronavirus cases, including arrivals from Azerbaijan and Lithuania, was the highest daily total since April 18, when 30 infections were recorded. It pushed the city’s overall count to 12,094 cases, with 212 related deaths.

Workers from Indonesia and the Philippines will begin arriving next week. Photo: Dickson Lee

Fifteen of the latest infections came from the Thor Monadic cargo vessel, which arrived in Hong Kong waters on Tuesday from Indonesia with a crew of 23.