This Nov 14, 2021 picture shows a passenger (center) scanning a QR code required by the Hong Kong government for contact tracing due to COVID-19 measures, before boarding a bus operated by a Hong Kong travel agency offering five-hour "quiet bus" tour marketed as a "route to nowhere" for travel-craving and restless residents to snooze on board in Hong Kong. (BERTHA WANG / AFP)
HONG KONG – Hong Kong has reported seven more COVID-19 infections involving the Omicron variant, bringing the Omicron tally to 34.
The cases were reported on Monday and Tuesday and the latest genome sequencing indicated they were infected with the variant, according to the Centre for Health Protection on Wednesday.
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The infections involved six men and one woman aged between 29 and 61. Four of them tested positive during the "test-and-hold" arrangement upon arrival at the Hong Kong airport and three of them tested positive during quarantine, the center added.
In view of the increasing risks posed by the variant, the government announced on late Tuesday the tightening of infection control measures at quarantine hotels. If an Omicron case is detected at a quarantine hotel, travelers who stay in rooms adjacent and opposite to the room of the patient will be required to get tested for COVID-19 daily for seven days.
The Centre for Haelth Protection added Block 3 of The Eldorado in Yuen Long into the compulsory testing notice after two people who live there tested positive to COVID-19 after returning from the UK
For those who had stayed in the adjacent and opposite rooms within the same period but had completed compulsory quarantine at the hotel, the CHP will request them to go for additional testing in the community as soon as possible.
“They will also be advised to avoid group gatherings until they complete seven days of additional surveillance,” the center said.
The financial hub reported seven new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, all of them were imported and involved mutant strains.
The patients included a 38-year-old foreign domestic helper from the Philippines and a 50-year-old aircrew member who had visited the US and the UK, the center said.
Also among the new patients were a 61-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman who live at Block 3 of The Eldorado in Yuen Long.
They departed Hong Kong on Dec 2 for the UK and tested negative for COVID-19 on Dec 3 and 17 in the UK. They arrived in Hong Kong on Dec 20 from the UK on Cathay Pacific flight CX252 and their specimens collected upon arrival in the airport tested positive for COVID-19 and carried the N501Y mutant strain.
The man developed symptoms on Dec 19 while the woman was asymptomatic. They both have a Ct value of less than 20, meaning a high viral load. Both patients have received two doses of BioNTech vaccine in Hong Kong, according to the center.
“As a prudent measure, the places where they resided and visited in Hong Kong during the incubation period have been included in a compulsory testing notice,” the center said.
Hong Kong’s COVID-19 tally stood at 12,548. A total of 70 cases have been reported in the past 14 days and all of them were imported.
TRAVEL CURBS TIGHTENED
The SAR government on Wednesday added Burkina Faso, Cayman Islands and Togo to the list of high risk places from this Saturday in view of detection of Omicron cases.
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Hong Kong residents who have stayed in such places within 21 days can only board a flight for the city only if they have been fully vaccinated and hold a recognized COVID-19 jab record. Non-residents staying in such regions within 21 days won’t be allowed to enter Hong Kong.
Upon arrival, they must undergo 21 days of compulsory quarantine in a designated quarantine hotel, during which six virus tests have to be conducted. On the 26th day of arrival in Hong Kong, they must also undergo another compulsory test in a community testing center.