The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating seven additional imported COVID-19 cases involving three men and four women.

One of the patients arrived from a high-risk place with enhanced surveillance, five from high-risk places and the other from a medium-risk place.

Six cases involve the N501Y mutant strain while one has the L452R strain, the centre added.

Among them is a 61-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman who left Hong Kong on December 2 for the UK, and they tested negative for COVID-19 on December 3 and 17 in the country. They returned to the city on December 20 by flight CX252 and their specimens collected upon arrival in the airport tested positive for the virus with the N501Y mutant strain.

The male patient developed symptoms on December 19 while the female patient is asymptomatic. They had received two doses of BioNTech vaccination in Hong Kong.

Both of them live at Block 3, The Eldorado in Yuen Long. As a prudent measure, the places where they lived and visited in Hong Kong during the incubation period have been included in a compulsory testing notice on December 20 which requires specified people to get tested no later than today.

The centre also provided an update on the investigations on seven imported cases announced on December 20 and December 21.

The whole genome sequencing analysis conducted by the Government's Public Health Laboratory Services Branch confirmed that the seven cases carry the Omicron variant.

Four of them tested positive upon arrival at the airport while the remaining cases tested positive during quarantine. There are 34 cases so far involving the Omicron variant in Hong Kong.

The centre reminded people linked to Cheung Hing Building in Yau Ma Tei and Block 18A, Serenity Villa in Tai Po to undergo compulsory testing in accordance with the compulsory testing notice tomorrow.

In view of a previous imported case involving a patient who had stayed in Hong Kong during the incubation period, those who had been at 11 specified premises during the specified period need to get tested again.

Mobile specimen collection stations will be set up to provide free testing services for people subject to compulsory testing.

A total of 70 cases have been reported in the past 14 days, all of them are imported.

For information and health advice on COVID-19, visit the Government’s dedicated webpage.