Woman tests positive for Covid after quarantine stay

Hong Kong health authorities reported one imported Covid infection on Thursday, involving a 30-year-old woman who had already completed 21 days of quarantine.

The woman, who works as a domestic helper, flew in from Indonesia on September 17 aboard flight CX798. She had two doses of the Sinovac vaccine while in Indonesia. She tested negative for the coronavirus upon arrival at the airport in Hong Kong.

She underwent a mandatory three-week quarantine period at the Silka Tsuen Wan in Kwai Chung. Six tests the woman underwent at the quarantine hotel all returned negative.

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said the woman returned to her employer’s home in Tai Po on October 7, and developed symptoms a day later. A test she took on October 12 returned positive, but with a low viral load.

The CHP said another test the woman took after being admitted to hospital was indeterminate. It said an epidemiological investigation and contact tracing is continuing.

The CHP said, as a prudent measure, places where the woman resided and visited during the incubation period have been included in a compulsory testing notice.

The testing notice covers anyone who was present at Tower 10, Phase 3 of The Graces, Providence Bay in Tai Po for more than two hours between September 17 and October 13.

Also included in the testing order are people who were present at Dr Liu Kai Ling Clinic in Tai Wo Estate in Tai Po between 3.30pm and 6.30pm on October 8, as well as a branch of Market Place By Jasons on Fo Chun Road in Tai Po between 9am and noon on October 11.

Authorities have reported 61 cases over the past fortnight, including a local case with unknown sources.

This latest imported case brings Hong Kong’s tally since the start of the pandemic to 12,276.