Covid-19: five Hong Kong karate athletes test positive after Kazakhstan event as HKSI vows to continue safety protocols
- National Games bronze medallist Lau Chi-ming, Wong Cheuk-lee, Cheung Chu-ngan, Lau Bak-hang and Leung Man-him were sent to hospital after testing positive
- HKSI says 10 other athletes and three coaches deemed to be close contacts were sent to Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre
The Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI) will continue its policy of strict scrutiny on overseas trips after five karate athletes tested positive for Covid-19 upon returning from a competition in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The five are Wong Cheuk-lee, Cheung Chu-ngan, Lau Bak-hang, Leung Man-him, and Lau Chi-ming, the brother of Olympic bronze medallist Grace La Mo-sheung. An HKSI statement said they flew to Hong Kong via Seoul on Thursday night after the Asian Championships and tested positive at Hong Kong International Airport.
HKSI’s director of community relations and marketing, Ron Lee Chung-man, said it was not known if any of the five were infected with the Omicron variant that has become the dominant strain in many countries.
The quintet were sent to hospital by the Department of Health while 10 other athletes and three staff who travelled with them were deemed close contacts and sent to the Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre.
The HKSI has been preventing many athletes from travelling over the past year because of coronavirus concerns in destination countries and Lee said they would continue to implement its policy on a case-by-case basis.
“We have a safety protocol and we will consult the doctors before any trips are taking place, so they will evaluate the risk factor in that particular country and in that particular competition,” Lee told the Post. “So we have to balance between competition and athletes’ health.”