HK reports 4 COVID-19 cases

November 17, 2020

Centre for Health Protection Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan:

The previously (confirmed COVID-19 case of a) night shift (security) guard was reported on November 14. At that time, we had already tried to arrange all the other day shift guards to (undergo) testing.

(The supervisors) thought that the community testing centre was a better choice, so they arranged their colleagues to have testing there. One of them attended on November 15 and tested positive.

Now we have (here) two (security guards with COVID-19) - one (works) in the daytime and one (works) at night. So we suspect that there may be contamination in the changing room or rest room - that may explain the situation.

Maybe you (could recall) the (COVID-19 cases) of the staff in The Royal Garden hotel. They also shared a common room. The (staff of) Wang Kee Port Operation Services Limited in the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals also shared a common room. So these are risky places that we need to pay attention (to).

Once we have a confirmed case, we usually ask them to thoroughly disinfect those places, but we don’t know whether (any) contamination has actually happened until we have another case.

(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) today said it is investigating four additional COVID-19 cases, of which three are imported and the other is locally transmitted with an unknown source of infection.

At a press briefing this afternoon, the centre’s Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said the local case involves a 29-year-old male engineering sector worker. He works in Lai Chi Kok but also visits a construction site in Sai Wan up to three times a week.

About 10 of his colleagues at the Lai Chi Kok office need to be quarantined, while specimen bottles will be distributed to about 40 other workers, Dr Chuang added.

She also explained that 10 people have tested preliminary positive for COVID-19, including a 50-year-old security guard at Chuang's London Plaza in Jordan where a night shift security guard was confirmed to have contracted the virus on November 14.

The man, who works the day shift, was confirmed infected after being tested at the Yau Ma Tei community testing centre that began operation on November 15.

The CHP has not ruled out the possibility that certain areas of the guards' workplace may have been contaminated given that two cases have been reported there within a short space of time.

“Now we have (here) two (security guards with COVID-19) - one (works) in the daytime and one (works) at night. So we suspect that there may be contamination in the changing room or rest room - that may explain the situation,” Dr Chuang said.

The three imported cases arrived from Turkey, Germany and the UK.

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