bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

Jack Tsang

Rachel Yeo

Ng Kang-chung

Natalie Wong

Eleven officials released from quarantine after being deemed unlikely to have been exposed to infected guests at a now-infamous birthday bash will still have to undergo nearly two weeks of home isolation – using their own vacation leave – before being allowed to return to work.
The latest development in what is rapidly turning into a political crisis for city leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor came as calls mounted for the government to hold accountable the dozens of officials who attended the birthday party along with a confirmed coronavirus patient and where social-distancing rules might have been broken last week. The fiasco has already seen dozens of ministers and lawmakers ordered into quarantine.
Meanwhile, fears that Hong Kong was falling behind in the race to contain the spread of Omicron grew on Sunday as another local untraceable case emerged and health workers investigated possible vertical transmission of Covid-19 at a residential building.
The Omicron wave is threatening to overrun the city just as families, already exhausted by following some of the most restrictive pandemic-control measures in the world, prepare to celebrate the Lunar New Year festival at the start of February. The rising number of cases also comes as campaigning for the chief executive race is about to begin, and while Lam has not said whether she will seek re-election, neither has any other candidate stepped forward yet.

Authorities also said another guest at the birthday party attended by ministers and lawmakers was suspected to be carrying the coronavirus and the building where she lives, Harbour Green Tower 2 in Tai Kok Tsui, was locked down while residents underwent screening.
However, her case did not affect the quarantine orders for roughly 100 party-goers, including home affairs chief Caspar Tsui Ying-wai, who apologised a second time for attending, and immigration director Au Ka-wang, both of whom remain in the government’s isolation facility at Penny’s Bay.
Eleven other senior officials released from quarantine after they were deemed unlikely to have been exposed will not be allowed to return to work until January 21, after they have completed three rounds of tests, a government spokesman said.
The 11 would also have to undergo home isolation using their own vacation days “to minimise the risk of possible transmission”.
“After the investigations are completed, the chief executive will take appropriate actions against the relevant officials in an impartial manner,” the spokesman said.
The new local unlinked case, meanwhile, which is still classified as preliminary-positive, involved a part-time saleswoman at the busy Sogo department store in the retail heart of downtown Causeway Bay, while the suspected transmission at the Tai Po block appeared to have occurred via an altered waste water pipe. During the previous wave, vertical transmission was blamed for spreading the virus among neighbours at several buildings.
The local untraceable case is the second of the emerging fifth wave of the pandemic after a 58-year-old supermarket worker who criss-crossed the city while infected was identified on Saturday.
Genome sequencing showed the goods handler’s case was linked to a 28-year-old Cathay Pacific flight attendant who returned to the city on December 27 carrying Omicron, according to Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch.
The airline employee’s mother, who was later confirmed as infected, is at the centre of Hong Kong’s current cluster of infections.
“We indeed have found at least one more untraceable case at the moment, so we are worried that there are silent transmission chains in the community,” Chuang said. “I think the public has to keep social-distancing measures at least for the coming one to two weeks.”

The city on Sunday confirmed 33 coronavirus cases, 27 of which involved arrivals. Among the six remaining cases, five were linked to imported infections, while one was classified as possibly import-related. Another 20 preliminary-positive cases were identified.
Health officials said the preliminary-positive part-time saleswoman, 20, last worked at Sogo on December 28, but she also had a pharmacy job at On Ting Estate in Tuen Mun. She lives with her family at the Aegean Coast residential complex in Tuen Mun, which was placed under lockdown while residents were tested.
Health authorities also locked down the Mei Sun Building on Kau Hui Chik Street in Tai Po where the vertical transmission was suspected. A domestic helper living in flat 5D was confirmed as infected on Friday, while a 66-year-old woman living in flat 10D was among the latest suspected cases.
After inspecting the building in the afternoon, leading microbiologist Professor Yuen Kwok-yung said he believed vertical transmission had occurred between the two flats and recommended that residents of 19 units facing that direction, from the 6th to 24th floor, be quarantined.


Officers from the environmental protection and buildings departments found that inside flat 10D waste water pipes in an en suite room had been altered, leading them to suspect the virus discharged from unit 5D might have travelled upwards to 10D.
“We are pretty certain [vertical transmission between floors] should be the most likely cause of the spread,” Yuen said.
During Hong Kong’s fourth wave of infections, at least four residential buildings were affected by a similar transmission route, which triggered evacuations and the quarantine of residents.
The latest coronavirus crisis has prompted pro-establishment legislators to call for the government to follow mainland China’s approach of ordering citywide screenings. But Dr Leung Chi-chiu, a respiratory medicine specialist, said large-scale testing during an Omicron outbreak would be logistically unfeasible.
“We need at least three days to finish citywide testing. Meanwhile, we have to ask 7.5 million citizens to stay at home. The economy will collapse before the virus is dead,” he said.
Meanwhile, Carrie Lam is also being urged to take action against the management of Hong Kong’s flagship carrier, Cathay Pacific, which has been accused of lax oversight of aircrew members who flouted home isolation rules and visited bars and restaurants while infected with the highly transmissible variant.
Professor Gabriel Leung, dean of the University of Hong Kong’s faculty of medicine, said the coming 10 days would be a “dangerous period”, while also urging Cathay Pacific to plug “loopholes” in its flights for returning aircrew.
“If there are more cases of unknown origin, authorities really need to consider whether more social-distancing measures are needed, such as allowing schools to start the Lunar New Year break earlier and [encouraging] a larger scale of working from home,” he said in a televised interview, before the latest case figures were revealed.
Hong Kong Covid-19 rules may have been broken at birthday party: lawyers
Leung said that Cathay had allowed crew members to return to the city through cargo flights instead of passenger ones to exempt them from quarantine, arguing that the airline must be aware of the loophole and plug such lapses to fulfil its social responsibility.
“If the airline does not know [about the loophole], it is impossible those aircrew [could have boarded] the plane … There is no other explanation,” he said.
While critics have questioned whether Hong Kong’s zero-Covid stance is viable given the more transmissible Omicron variant had already infiltrated the city’s defences, Leung said authorities should “absolutely not” consider coexistence with the virus, as many, including children, had yet to be vaccinated.
He also took aim at vaccine makers and distributors, saying that their delay in extending jabs to children was “irresponsible”.
“They have not applied for lowering the age limit … I think these pharmaceutical companies are extremely irresponsible, and I hope they will not only make money but also think of us,” he said.




Currently, children as young as three in Hong Kong have access to the Chinese-made Sinovac jab, with priority for those aged 12 to 17. The German-produced BioNTech vaccines are only available to children aged 12 and above.
Leung also urged authorities to increase the capacity of community vaccination centres, highlighting that Gleneagles Hospital had doubled its vaccination quota from 300 to 600 per day. As of Sunday, 5 million residents out of 7.5 million eligible for vaccination had received at least one dose.
Meanwhile, the government has also imposed flight bans on two airlines until January 22, namely Singapore Airlines from San Francisco after eight passengers had tested positive upon arrival, and All Nippon Airways from Tokyo after 6 people tested positive.
The city’s confirmed Covid-19 case tally stood at 12,935, with 213 related deaths.


Omicron: Hong Kong officials released from quarantine will have to use vacation days to self-isolate; second unlinked Covid-19 case detected

Residents undergo mandatory testing at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay on Sunday. Photo: Nora Tam

Residents undergo testing at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay on Sunday. Photo: Nora Tam

Professor Gabriel Leung from HKU. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

News

Hong Kong

Health & Environment

Coronavirus

Asia


The 11 officials will also have to undergo multiple rounds of testing before being allowed to return to work
Risk of silent transmission chains grows after saleswoman who worked at one of the busiest shopping malls in the city, Sogo, listed as untraceable case



The 11 officials will also have to undergo multiple rounds of testing before being allowed to return to work.


Omicron: Hong Kong officials released from quarantine will have to use vacation days to self-isolate; second unlinked Covid-19 case detected

The 11 officials will also have to undergo multiple rounds of testing before being allowed to return to work Risk of silent transmission chains grows after saleswoman who worked at one of the busiest shopping malls in the city, Sogo, listed as untraceable case

The 11 officials will also have to undergo multiple rounds of testing before being allowed to return to work

Risk of silent transmission chains grows after saleswoman who worked at one of the busiest shopping malls in the city, Sogo, listed as untraceable case