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

Gigi Choy

Victor Ting

A pet store worker has become the first untraceable Delta case in Hong Kong in more than three months, health authorities have confirmed, although they are still trying to identify the origin of the “strange” infection.
Experts on Monday said they were exploring different possibilities for the source, including that it was a person infected during quarantine who “slipped through the cracks” and made it into the community or that the woman caught Covid-19 from a pet, although that route of transmission was viewed as unlikely.
Health advisers on the government’s joint scientific committee also called for making the two brands of Covid-19 vaccines administered in Hong Kong available to children as young as five, while the Home Affairs Department announced it would hand out 300,000 tests to residents in need in the coming weeks.

Officials are still investigating the source of the Delta case, which involves a 23-year-old woman who worked at the Little Boss pet shop in Causeway Bay and was first reported on Sunday.
“The untraceable case reported is strange because it involves the Delta variant,” Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said. “We need to do more work to figure out why.”
The infection was among seven confirmed cases on Monday. Three others involved close contacts of a previous patient, while the other three were imported.
The city’s overall Covid-19 tally stands at 13,048, with 213 related deaths. Fewer than 20 people tested preliminary-positive, nine of whom were patients believed to have been infected by a Pakistani woman who tested positive five days after completing her hotel quarantine.
The last local Delta case was reported on October 8, when a cargo handler working at the airport was confirmed to be infected.
The pet store worker developed symptoms on Tuesday but did not submit samples until Friday. She took a staycation at Kew Green Hotel Wanchai Hong Kong and also had hotpot with friends at Haidilao in Yau Ma Tei.
Screening revealed she had a high viral load, but an earlier lockdown of her residential block in Aberdeen uncovered no infections.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said full genome sequencing conducted by Polytechnic University showed the woman carried the Delta AY.127 strain, which was in high circulation in Pakistan.
Chuang said the closest recent infection that resembled the woman’s was the Pakistani arrival but there was a difference of 17 mutations between them, meaning the source could be somewhere else.
Respiratory medicine expert Dr Leung Chi-chiu said the pet shop worker’s infection could have been caused by an import-related case slipping into the community. The most likely scenario was that a person became infected at a quarantine hotel and transmitted the virus to the woman, Leung added.
“If someone was infected during their last one to two days in hotel quarantine, their positive result may not be picked up on the Day 26 Covid-19 test,” he said.
Air pollution in Hong Kong rose last year as social-distancing rules eased: NGO
Dr Gilman Siu Kit-hang, the PolyU academic who led the genome analysis, told the Post his team was investigating multiple possibilities, including pet-to-human transmission.
Siu noted that on June 2 last year, health authorities confirmed an untraceable infection of an Alpha strain involving a customer who bought a chinchilla from Little Boss pet shop.
At the time, pet-to-human transmission was viewed as a possibility as the store mainly imported animals from Europe, where Alpha was then dominant.
“Could it be that a pet carrying the Delta strain has passed the virus to the worker?” Siu said. “We want to investigate all fronts, but of course, human-to-human spread remains the main route of transmission for Covid-19.”
Siu said the chances of a major Delta outbreak were still low at the moment, but the situation would depend on whether the patient’s family members and other close contacts tested positive in the coming days.


Of the nine known infections tied to the Pakistani woman, five involved family members living at Tai Hang Tung Estate in Sham Shui Po where she returned on January 10. The remaining four concerned her friends living at Po Wah Court in Cheung Sha Wan where she visited after her quarantine at the Silka Seaview Hotel Hong Kong.
Authorities on Sunday revealed that poor ventilation in rooms could have resulted in cross infections on floors four and 12. Another person in an adjacent room was earlier identified as infected, raising the possibility the cases were linked.
Chuang revealed that some of the 60 environmental samples collected at the hotel tested positive for the coronavirus, including ones taken from a purifier outside the room, an exhaust vent in the toilet and water taps in one patient’s room.
“These places are not those places that are commonly touched by people, so this confirms that the virus can transmit through the air,” she said.
Hong Kong uncovers Delta, Omicron cases in community, 1 of them untraceable
While experts warned Hong Kong could face the twin threat of Delta and Omicron, they also said the chance of major outbreaks remained low at this time.
The health advisers on the official joint scientific committee urged the government to heed its recommendation and allow five to 11-year-olds to be vaccinated with the BioNTech jab and “expedite” the approval process so that parents had a “real choice” between the German-made doses and the other brand available in the city, the Chinese-manufactured Sinovac.
It is recommended children receive two doses of Sinovac 20 days apart, while for BioNTech, the jabs given at one-third the amount of an adult dose should be administered at least 12 weeks apart.
The Home Affairs Department will hand out the 300,000 rapid test kits across all 18 districts to residents in need in the coming weeks, including the elderly, domestic helpers and people in doubt about their health conditions.


The government also announced it would extend its “vaccine bubble” arrangement to residential care homes for the elderly and people with disabilities on February 24, meaning all workers would have to be vaccinated with at least one dose or have a medical exemption.
Meanwhile, several pro-establishment lawmakers met Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, who will deliver his annual budget on February 23, to make policy suggestions on helping those affected by the new outbreak of coronavirus infections.
The Liberal Party’s chairman Tommy Cheung Yu-yan, who represents the catering sector, said he proposed that the government launch another round of consumption vouchers, as the HK$5,000 (US$642) in previous handouts to each resident had proved popular.
But Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, chair of the New People’s Party disagreed, saying Chan should instead give self-employed residents a special allowance of at least HK$7,500 each.
Additional reporting by Tony Cheung


Coronavirus: Hong Kong confirms first Delta case in 3 months, as officials race to track down source of ‘strange’ infection

Health officials have urged people not to let down their guard against the virus. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan. Photo: Edmond So

The Kew Green Hotel Wanchai. Photo: Handout

News

Hong Kong

Health & Environment


Untraceable Delta case, first reported on Sunday, involves 23-year-old woman working at pet store with high viral load
Official committee also urges government to allow children as young as five to receive either of the two vaccines available in Hong Kong



Official committee also urges government to allow children as young as five to receive either of the two vaccines available in Hong Kong.


Coronavirus Hong Kong

Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

Disease

Coronavirus: Hong Kong confirms first Delta case in 3 months, as officials race to track down source of ‘strange’ infection

Untraceable Delta case, first reported on Sunday, involves 23-year-old woman working at pet store with high viral load Official committee also urges government to allow children as young as five to receive either of the two vaccines available in Hong Kong

Untraceable Delta case, first reported on Sunday, involves 23-year-old woman working at pet store with high viral load

Official committee also urges government to allow children as young as five to receive either of the two vaccines available in Hong Kong