Hong Kong reports five new imported Covid cases

The new patients were a man arriving from the Philippines, a woman from Indonesia, and two men and a nine-month-old from the United Arab Emirates. None of them had any symptoms and the four adults had all been vaccinated, with various jabs.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said it would not classify a case involving a 32-year-old man who tested positive for the coronavirus as a Covid infection, after tests suggested his sample may have been contaminated by a vaccine strain.

The CHP said the man’s throat specimen was taken at a private clinic on August 16 and he was found to have a low viral load. But after he was admitted to hospital, results of his Covid and antibody tests came back negative.

Health authorities said the doctor at the private clinic had also administered Sinovac jabs to other patients before taking the specimen from the man, and genetic analysis of the patient’s sample showed it was compatible with the coronavirus vaccine strain.

Officials said the man’s close contacts had been released from a quarantine camp after testing negative for the virus.