People wearing face mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19 use a pedestrian foot bridge in Hong Kong, May 5, 2021. (PHOTO / AP)
HONG KONG – Two unlinked coronavirus cases caused by mutated strains in Hong Kong have been classified as traceable, as health authorities managed to link the patients to two separate gatherings with an overlap of attendees.
According to the latest contact-tracing results, three Filipino domestic helpers contracted the highly transmissible N501Y strain believed to be carried into Hong Kong by the first patient in the chain – a man who flew in from Dubai in March.
The 29-year-old arrival from Dubai, as well as a Filipino woman he stayed with, attended a family party on April 13 at Fung Hing House of Hing Wah (II) Estate in Chai Wan.
More than 1 million people have taken at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccines on offer in HK since the program was rolled out started more than two months ago
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Three attendees of the Chai Wan gathering partied at a flat on 37 Fuk Wing Street in Sham Shui Po on April 18. The three helpers who were later found to be carrying the same variant strain had attended the home party.
The three helpers worked at different residential buildings in Tung Chung, Quarry Bay and Pok Fu Lam. All residents of the buildings have been sent to government facilities to observe 21 days of quarantine.
The Tung Chung case triggered a mandatory testing program targeting all of the city’s 370,000 helpers, which helped identify the other two cases.
On Thursday, the Centre for Health Protection said relatives of the Filipino woman who stayed with the man from Dubai attended gatherings at Deep Water Bay Beach on April 25 and May 1. The CHP said those who attended the gatherings would be quarantined.
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Hong Kong also reported two new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, imported from the Philippines and Indonesia, pushing the city’s tally of confirmed cases to 11,798.
Hong Kong has so far identified 10 community cases of infections caused by variants, six of which were locally transmitted and classified as belonging to the same cluster.
As of Wednesday, more than 1 million Hong Kong residents had received at least the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, accounting for 15 percent of the city’s population aged 16 or above.
Since the city’s vaccination program started on Feb 26, around 588,100 people had been fully vaccinated with two shots.
The Department of Health on Thursday received a report of the death of a 46-year-old man who had been vaccinated. So far, there is no clinical evidence indicating that his death was caused by the vaccine, according to a government statement.