Coronavirus: Hong Kong domestic helper tests positive 5 days after completing quarantine
- Helper’s imported infection is Hong Kong’s only confirmed Covid-19 case on Thursday; preliminary-positive tally is in single digits
- Woman, 30, tested negative repeatedly before eventually returning a positive reading when in the community, on 26th day after landing
The 30-year-old woman, who arrived in the city from Indonesia via Cathay Pacific flight 798 on September 17, tested negative for Covid-19 at the airport and on six further occasions during her mandatory quarantine at the Silka Tsuen Wan hotel. But she returned a positive reading when she was back in the community, on the 26th day after arriving in the city.
The infection, classed as imported, was the only one confirmed in Hong Kong on Thursday. Fewer than 10 preliminary-positive cases were reported. The city’s official tally now stands at 12,276 cases, with 213 related deaths.
After completing her 21-day quarantine on October 7, the helper went to her employer’s home at Tower 10, Phase 3 of The Graces in Tai Po’s Providence Bay, developing symptoms a day later.
She tested positive on October 12 with a low viral load. Her test results after hospital admission were indeterminate but she was later confirmed as infected.
She had received both shots of the Sinovac vaccine in Indonesia. The first dose was administered on July 9 and the second on August 11. Medical experts have said that while vaccines do not offer total protection against infection, they vastly reduce the severity of the illness and likelihood of death.
