Hong Kong’s Center for Health Protection has identified four more Covid-19 patients linked to a group of people who went on a “staycation” at a Lantau hotel between October 25 and 27.
The center said Wednesday that five people tested positive between Monday and Tuesday. Four of them could be linked to three previous cases from the cluster at the Seaview Holiday Resort.
A 26-year-old man, who lived in Kwong Yau House, Kwong Fuk Estate in Tai Po, came down with the illness after staying at the resort with other infected patients from October 25 to 27.
A 54-year-old woman, who lived in Shin Lun House, Fu Shin Estate in Tai Po, was infected by a relative of an earlier patient linked to the outbreak.
Prior to these two cases, two male patients aged 24 and 26 did not stay at the resort with the other infected patients but they came into contact with one of them. These four new patients brought the total confirmed cases in the cluster to seven.
Separately, a 36-year-old man, who lived in Causeway Bay and works in Central, tested positive on Monday with no known source. During his incubation period, he played football with 20 friends in Wong Chuk Hang, basketball with a few others in Ap Lei Chau, and played cards with 10 more in a Central office. He also had drinks with a friend at Bar De Luxe in Central.
Bottles would be distributed to collect samples from the man’s friends and about 200 colleagues for tests, said Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the center’s communicable disease branch.
From Friday, testing agency Prenetics will visit bars and hand out specimen bottles to collect saliva samples from frontline staff, according to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department.
Mobile vans will also be parked in bar areas such as Central, Wan Chai, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok over the weekend, to distribute specimen bottles to anyone who would like to take a voluntary test.
From November 9, voluntary virus tests will be provided for all teachers and staff at primary and secondary schools and kindergartens in a two-month testing scheme, the Education Bureau said Wednesday.
A testing agency will distribute specimen bottles and collect saliva samples from teachers and staff from about 50 schools each day, Education Secretary Kevin Yeung said.
“I encourage all teachers and staff to get tested for Covid-19 as it would make the whole of society feel more relieved. We will know more about the situation in the education sector, which involves a lot of contacts. It can also protect the students,” Yeung said.
“But we don’t have to know whether individual teachers have joined the scheme, or the participation rate of different schools. There’s no pressure.”
In the middle of this month, a Covid-19 contact tracing app called “Leave Home Safe” will be launched by the government, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Tuesday.
The app will allow people to scan QR codes at hundreds of locations, such as government markets, sports centers and swimming pools. Users will be alerted if coronavirus cases appear at these places.
However, Leung Chi-chiu, chairman of the Medical Association’s advisory committee on communicable diseases, suggested that the government encourage people with incentives to use the app. Leung said the voluntary system would not work if only a few people used it.