HK sees seven new virus cases as Royal Garden and bar cluster grows

The cluster surrounding Royal Garden Hotel and China Secret bar continues to grow as one more Thai woman got infected after coming contact with a resident of the Tsim Sha Tsui hotel who had also been to the bar.

She is among seven Covid-19 patients in four females and three males, 15 to 76, announced today, taking the tally to 5,183 including 105 deaths.

Today is also the second consecutive day without new patients contracting the virus from unknown sources, as the fresh cases comprised three imported and four linked with previous local infections.

One of them, a 24-year-old Thai woman living at M1 Hotel North Point is a close contact of a previously diagnosed Thai woman who had lived in five-star Royal Garden Hotel and went to China Secret bar on the third floor of Lee Chau Commercial Building.

Despite being asymptomatic, the 24-year-old attended a private clinic and tested positive after hearing about her friend becoming a confirmed case, making her the 13rd patient of the cluster involving China Secret and Holly Mansion, where some previously diagnosed Thai women shared a flat in.

Another patient linked with previous local infections is a 76-year-old woman who developed symptoms at quarantine center last Saturday.

The Home of Treasure for the mentally disabled in Kwai Chung saw two more male residents, both 52, infected, taking the care home cluster to 16 patients.

The three imported cases were a woman, 38, from Netherlands, a boy, 15, from Nepal and had stayed at Tsim Sha Tsui's Ramada Hong Kong Grand hotel and a 43-year-old helper arriving from the Philippines.