Tuen Mun block placed under lockdown

Health authorities have put a residential block in Tuen Mun under lockdown on Thursday evening, after a resident who returned from Dubai was diagnosed with a mutant strain of the coronavirus.

All those living in Block 6 of Handsome Court on Castle Park Road will have to undergo testing, and authorities hope to complete the operation by around 7am on Friday.

The patient in question is a fully-vaccinated 36-year-old woman who travelled to Dubai on July 12 and returned to Hong Kong via Bangkok on Monday.

Even though she tested preliminary positive for the L452R mutant strain while in quarantine, officials say mandatory tests were ordered because she had stayed at Handsome Court within the past 21 days.

People who were at the patient’s workplace – Eton Tower in Causeway Bay between June 30 and July 11 – must also take a test.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health says it has revoked quarantine exemptions for a Saudi Arabian consulate official and his family, after they were found to have breached self-isolating rules and two of the children tested positive for Covid-19.

Officials say the family has now been sent to the Penny’s Bay quarantine centre.