Man from Dubai jailed for hiding whereabouts

Kowloon City Magistracy on Monday handed down a three-month jail sentence to a man officials linked to a small outbreak of a variant strain of the coronavirus after he failed to report his movements around the city.

Syed Mohamed Rizvi, who arrived from Dubai in March, was the first person with a mutated Covid-19 strain found while out in the community.

He pleaded guilty to six counts of providing false information to officials.

The court had earlier heard that the 30-year-old engineer attended a family gathering in Chai Wan in mid-April, leading to the spread of the virus to four family members and five others.

However, he had not provided a full account of his whereabouts to authorities who were conducting contact tracing, saying he did not want his family to be questioned by officials.

His friend, Victoria Marie Alcaide Guadiz, was given a 20-day jail sentence after admitting to one count of the same charge,

But Principal Magistrate Ada Yim ordered the 31-year-old nurse’s release, as she had already spent 20 days on remand.

Yim said the court needed to send a strong message to society about the seriousness of the offence, saying Covid patients who fail to reveal where they have been could cause a severe health crisis.