Coronavirus Hong Kong: suspected superspreading event at public housing block triggers 3-day testing order for 2,500 residents
- Residents of Kwai Chung Estate’s Yat Kwai House must undergo daily screening for three days and will only be allowed to leave home after testing negative for virus
- Officials had reported only two confirmed and a number of preliminary cases earlier on Thursday but by midnight 16 people had tested positive, health expert says
Hong Kong authorities have placed a public housing block under a three-day restriction order for more than 2,500 residents to undergo daily Covid-19 testing, after a suspected Omicron superspreader was believed to have infected more than 10 others in the building.
The order, which takes effect on Friday, was issued after top microbiologist Professor Yuen Kwok-yung inspected Kwai Chung Estate’s Yat Kwai House on Thursday night with health officials. The infected husband of a woman who earlier tested positive for the Omicron variant had visited the building to collect items from refuse stations for recycling, and may have passed on the virus to staff or residents resulting in a superspreading event.
Residents must undergo daily screening for three days and will only be allowed to leave home after testing negative for the virus.
“I appeal to all residents here not to run away, or you will easily bring the virus to communities all over Hong Kong,” Yuen said.
Earlier in the day, health officials, racing to contain a growing wave of cases, ordered residents in about 20 buildings on Hong Kong Island to undergo mandatory testing after discovering the virus in sewage samples.
Education chiefs also announced the cancellation of most in-class lessons next week after more pupils were found to be infected as an Omicron cluster linked to the infected woman spread to several schools.