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https://scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3050217/social-welfare-staff-taken-ill-coronavirus-hit Health & Environment
Coronavirus: social welfare staff at evacuated Hong Kong housing block test negative after exhibiting flu symptoms
- The six worked at a family service centre in the building, where more than 100 residents were evacuated during the early hours of Tuesday
- As of Wednesday, one two-person household had still refused to be evacuated from the building
Food and Environmental Hygiene Department staff arrive at Hong Mei House, where Covid-19 infections have been confirmed. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
Six staff from a social welfare office in the Hong Kong housing block evacuated after a pair of coronavirus confirmations have tested negative after being sent to hospital with flu symptoms.
The six work at a family service centre on the ground floor of Hong Mei House on Cheung Hong Estate, from which more than 100 residents in 33 households were removed in the early hours of Tuesday.
Two people in the block were confirmed to be infected with the deadly virus that causes the disease named Covid-19 by the World Health Organisation. Three more people connected to the block in the city’s Tsing Yi area were also confirmed as infected later that day.
As of Wednesday night, there was still one two-person household in the block – involving an elderly person who might not understand the situation – that refused to be evacuated, according to the Centre for Health Protection (CHP).
So far, 50 people in Hong Kong have been confirmed as infected with the virus, which has killed one person in the city and more than 1,100 in mainland China.
Leung Kin-hung, chairman of the Social Work Officer Grade Branch of the Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants’ Association, said the workers from the Social Welfare Department’s Tsing Yi South Integrated Family Service Centre were sent to different hospitals on Tuesday after complaining of flu-like symptoms such as fever, coughing and diarrhoea.
“Those … staff had not met the two households with infected cases. The centre also did not share the same pipes,” Leung said. “The only relevance is that the centre is located at Hong Mei House.”
A spokesman for the Social Welfare Department later told the Post that officers from the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) had approached all of the family service centre’s staff members to check on their health on Tuesday.
Six of those staff were asked to go to hospitals for further tests. All were confirmed on Wednesday to have tested negative for the new coronavirus.
The family service centre was closed on Tuesday until further notice, and has since undergone thorough sterilisation as well as an inspection of its waste pipes, according to the Social Welfare Department.
AFCD staff take two tortoises from Hong Mei House after the housing block in Tsing Yi was evacuated following positive coronavirus confirmations. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
The Tsing Yi evacuation sparked worries over the sewage systems used in public housing estates in Hong Kong, as an infected 62-year-old who lived in flat 307 in Hong Mei House was suspected to be linked to the confirmed case of a 75-year-old man who lived 10 floors above her in flat 1307.
Health authorities suspected the coronavirus might have spread through the building’s water or sewage pipes, causing all residents living in flats ending with “07” to be evacuated and placed under quarantine.
The CHP’s head of the Communicable Disease Branch, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, updated the situation on Wednesday, saying relevant departments had carried out disinfections and examined the building’s pipes and found no abnormalities.
But professionals warned residents who may have altered pipes on their own that improper modifications could have serious consequences.
Residents alter and divert the pipe for more space to put…. necessities, as the space in the toilet is limited. But without proper sealing, gases or a virus could enter through that space
Vincent Ho Kui-yip, former president of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors, was among those carrying out voluntary checks at Hong Mei House as well as other public estates. He came across at least one resident who had cut off the vent pipe just as in the Tsing Yi case.
“This is typical in some old public housing. Residents alter and divert the pipe for more space to put buckets and necessities, as the space in the toilet is limited,” Ho said. “But without proper sealing or fittings, gases or a virus could enter the flat through that space.”
Ho said that modifying pipes, including the U-shaped pipe, vent and waste pipe, is typical in subdivided flats and in those where families have turned bathtubs into shower cubicles.
“Many of these pipes help to balance each other within the drainage system, such as the U-shaped pipe and the vent pipe, and cutting them away is not only against the Building Ordinance, but will lead to a potential influx of virus.”
Alternations involving a home’s pipes require approval by the Housing Department, which owns Hong Kong’s public flats.
The Housing Department’s spokeswoman told the Post there is no central information repository for the number of applications or violation in those cases.
Additional reporting by Chan Ho-him