‘Woman released from quarantine infected nine others’

Health officials said on Monday that a woman who tested positive for Covid-19 days after she was released from hotel quarantine has apparently infected nine other people.

The 43-year-old woman, who recently flew to the territory from Pakistan, stayed at the Silka Seaview Hotel in Yau Ma Tei before she came down with the disease. Officials said some environmental samples taken at the hotel came back positive for Covid, suggesting the virus travelled between rooms.

At a press conference, the Centre for Health Protection said five relatives of the woman have now tested preliminary positive for the virus, as well as another family of four who live in Sham Shui Po.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the centre said the woman had travelled to Hong Kong with a child and they both stayed at the same quarantine hotel.

“After she was released form the hotel, there was family to pick up the companion before she returned to her own home… It’s possible that during that occasion the family got infected,” Chuang said, adding that the child is not a confirmed case.

“We are tracing their close contacts and their whereabouts to try to stop further transmission in that chain,” Chuang said.

In all, authorities reported seven Covid infections on Monday, with four of the patients believed to have caught the virus locally.

Chuang said authorities were still trying to pinpoint where a pet shop worker acquired the Delta variant.

“We went to the pet shop with officers from the [Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department] to collect samples from the animals as well as from the environment to try to find out any possible sources or explanation,” she said.

The three other local cases involved the family of a 19-year-old male infected earlier. All three were already in quarantine when their infections were picked up.