Officials probe possible Lam Tin restaurant outbreak

Health authorities on Monday stopped short of declaring a Covid outbreak at a restaurant in Lam Tin despite the infection of a third customer there.

The Centre for Health Protection’s Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said they are investigating how an 88-year-old man, who tested preliminary positive, might have contracted the virus.

She said the man had been to the Chinese restaurant in Lam Tin where two customers had recently been infected. He also lives in the same public housing building as one of the infected customers.

The man had been taken to United Christian Hospital in the early hours of Monday because of a fever and shortness of breath.

“We still have not yet confirmed any outbreak concerning the restaurant,” Chuang said. “[In total], there are three cases who had reportedly visited this restaurant. Two of them had contact with each other.”

“About the third case, we’re still investigating whether there’s any relation between him and the other two previous cases.”

Authorities reported a total of 18 new coronavirus infections, seven of which were locally acquired.

Two of the cases could not be traced.

The patients are a part-time taxi driver, and a clerk who works at a construction site in Cha Kwo Ling.

More than 100 people who work at the site will be ordered to get tested for Covid-19, while 10 staff members who worked in the same office with the clerk will be put under quarantine.

Of the 11 imported cases, nine involved people arriving from the Philippines.