HKU student may have caught Covid at CWB restaurant

Health officials on Wednesday were investigating if a university student acquired Covid-19 after he visited a Japanese restaurant in Causeway Bay for hot pot around the same time as a woman who was infected earlier.

Officials said the University of Hong Kong student, 20, visited the Nabe Urawa restaurant at Hysan Place in the evening of January 4. He has since tested preliminary positive for coronavirus.

At a press briefing, Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection said their investigation showed another Covid patient, 32, also visited the eatery around the same time.

Chuang said the student might have acquired the virus at the restaurant.

“They were not right next to each other. There were some tables in between but not very far away, there was one row of table in between,” she said.

“We are concerned because we do not actually understand the route of transmission in this setting because the ventilation system and also air flow may vary from restaurant to restaurant.”

Chuang said officials from the relevant government departments were at the restaurant to investigate.

The student last went to school last month and he’s also a part-time worker at the Dustykid Tea Shop – Light as Dust in Wan Chai and Sheung Wan.

He was one of the five preliminary-positive local infections reported by authorities.

Authorities reported 22 confirmed cases on Wednesday: five local and 17 imported.

Chuang also said officials were still trying to find out how a worker at the Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre came down with the disease.

“She had no direct contact with the residents. She’s only responsible for patrolling and distributing some of the resources and also carried some luggage to the door of those people under quarantine. It’s considered that the risk for her to transmit the illness to other residents of the quarantine centre is very low,” Chuang said.