No cases found in Tai Kok Tsui lockdown

An overnight “ambush-style” lockdown at a residential block in Tai Kok Tsui found no new Covid-19 cases from 760 tests, officials said as they began lifting the measures on Monday morning.

The testing operation was ordered on Sunday for Tower 6 of Island Harbourview after a 46 year-old domestic helper who lives there tested positive for a mutated strain of the coronavirus with no identifiable source.

People who were able to show wristbands confirming that they had taken a test or an SMS with a negative test result were allowed to leave from 7am.

People scheduled to take public exams on Monday morning were also allowed to leave, but they were told they would need to receive notification of a negative test before being allowed to sit the exam.

Officials went door to door in the block, visiting 280 flats. They received no response at 40 of them.

The 760 tests were completed by 12.30am, officials said. It wasn’t clear whether more residents were still being tested.

Anyone who has spent at least two hours in the block between May 3 and Sunday will also have to take a test, even if they were not present during the lockdown.

Meanwhile health officials are still trying to work out how the helper was infected. She visited Pakistan with her former employer’s family in early February and returned on April 3.

After spending 21 days in quarantine at the Ramada Harbour View hotel in Sai Ying Pun, the woman stayed at her former employer’s residence in Tsing Yi from April 24 to 29.

She subsequently moved into her new employer’s home in Tai Kok Tsui.

Officials said two tests the helper did in late April and early May both came back negative, but a test she did on Saturday under a mandatory testing order came back preliminary positive.