Omicron: Hong Kong confirms first local untraceable coronavirus case in 3 months as health expert calls for suspending in-person classes and expanding work-from-home
- The case involves a goods handler who worked in grocery stores in Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Happy Valley and Tsim Sha Tsui
- Separately, scores of people who attended infamous birthday party spared quarantine after suspected case turns out to be false alarm
The development prompted a medical expert to call for the suspension of in-person classes and mandating work from home arrangements, while another specialist warned of a “tsunami” of cases.
But fears of an explosion of infections tied to a birthday bash attended by a who’s who of the political establishment eased after a woman who was suspected to be infected was revealed as a false positive case, sparing 80 from quarantine.
The goods worker, 58, usually stopped by each store for a few minutes to check inventory and last went to work on Thursday, according to Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch.
The woman visited branches of Mannings, Marketplace, Watsons, ParknShop, Wellcome and U Select, among others, in Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Happy Valley and Tsim Sha Tsui. She had a relatively high viral load and was suspected to be infected with Omicron.
“We still haven’t found any overlap in place or time with our other cases,” Chuang said. “[But] the community is at risk, because she went to many places even though only for a short while and while wearing a mask.”
The case was the city’s first unlinked infection since October 8 last year, when a 48-year-old airport worker was diagnosed. A 42-year-old surveyor who was believed to be an untraceable case earlier this week was later linked to a cluster involving diners at a restaurant in Tin Hau.