Nurse likely contaminated by Sinovac jab: officials

Health officials said on Monday that a nurse who tested positive for coronavirus was probably not actually infected with Covid-19, and traces of the virus in her upper respiratory tract could have come from the Sinovac jab she was working with.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection said tests showed that the strain of virus found in the nurse was the same as the inactivated one contained in the mainland-made vaccine, and not a strain circulating in the community.

The nurse had been helping to administer Sinovac jabs at the Kwun Chung Sports Centre in Jordan.

“During drawing the vaccine, there may be some remnants in the vaccine syringe. This may cause some contamination to the environment through aerosol,” Chuang said.

“This is unavoidable but we have to distinguish that this is not infectious. She’s not really suffering from infection,” she said.

The CHP reported only one new confirmed Covid-19 infection on Monday. The patient was a 46-year-old foreign domestic worker who returned to Hong Kong in April. She was confirmed to have a mutant strain of coronavirus.

There were also two uncertain cases, involving a helper and a Pakistani worker who returned to Hong Kong in March. Officials were investigating whether the two infections are imported cases.