Another Penny’s Bay guard infected with Covid-19

Health authorities on Friday said a security guard at the Penny’s Bay quarantine camp, who is the colleague of another guard who was recently infected with Covid-19, has also tested preliminary positive for the virus.

Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said the 51-year-old woman began showing symptoms while in quarantine, and she most likely picked up the virus from her infected colleague.

Separately, Chuang said a preliminary positive infection detected on Thursday – involving a nurse who works in a clinic in Tuen Mun – has been ruled out as a Covid case, as further tests showed that her sample had been contaminated by inactivated virus strains found in vaccine supplies.

Another uncertain case which was picked up in an overnight lockdown at Hoi Tak Gardens in Tuen Mun has also been identified as a negative case following additional tests.

In all, nine new confirmed coronavirus cases were reported on Friday – six of which were imported infections.

There were fewer than 10 preliminary positive cases.

When asked whether the latest outbreak has been contained, the Controller of the CHP, Edwin Tsui, said people still need to be extremely vigilant.

“At present, although the number of local Omicron cases has been steady, or you can see a little bit reduced, we don’t know whether there is still silent transmission in some territories in Hong Kong. So we cannot say at present that the transmission has been contained. But we have to keep monitoring the situation for a certain period of time,” he said.