Six more Nepalis among 11 infected, Nepal flights banned

Hong Kong health authorities announced 11 more coronavirus infections today, taking the total tally to 5,125. 

The patients include seven imported and four locals. The source of infection of one is not known.

Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Center for Health Protection’s Communicable Disease Branch, said that one imported patient (case 5115) is a 31-year-old woman returning to Hong Kong from India on flight EK384 on October 3, via Dubai. 

The other imported patients (case 5116 to 5121), including four women and two men aged between 30 and 72 years, were all returnees to Hong Kong from Nepal on flight RA4099 on October 3. 

Chuang said under the 599H Prevention and Control of Disease Regulation on cross-boundary conveyances and travelers, the government has banned Nepal Airlines flights to Hong Kong for two weeks. 

“The measure is in effect between October 4 and 17,” she said. 

Meanwhile, three of four locals are linked to previously confirmed patients. 

Among them, two locals (case 5124 and 5125), including a 55-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, are the family members of an imported patient announced yesterday – a woman returning to Hong Kong from Nepal. 

“The imported patients visited the home of two people after two weeks of quarantine at a hotel, and it is believed that this is how the two got infected,” Chuang said. 

“As we learned that case 5110 [an imported patient who visited the  home] preliminarily tested positive for coronavirus, we sent the two to hospital – also tested positive for the virus.” 

Another local patient (case 5123) is a 38-year-old woman living in Holly Mansion on 37 Kimberly Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. 

The woman, a Thai, first came to Hong Kong in mid-March this year to visit friends. 

“She has been staying in the same building for most of the time with other Thai friends since her arrival in the city,” Chuang said. 

Chuang said that since the woman learned about confirmed patients in the building, she moved to Stanford Hillview Hotel with around two to three Thai friends to Standford Hillview Hotel in the same district.

“We have sent the close contacts of the woman to a quarantine center,” she said. 

A 35-year-old Thai woman is also among the four local patients, who lived with the 38-year-old woman (case 5123) and initially tested positive for coronavirus. 

“The Thai woman has family members in Hong Kong, but she moved in Holly Mansion with her friends instead for unknown reasons,” Chuang said. 

Chuang said that the woman had hung out with a local patient (case 5111) announced yesterday – a 27-year-old Thai housewife, who had visited  Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok on September 20 and 26.

The 27-year-old housewife living in Cheung Wan Estate in Tsing Yi, reported yesterday, first showed symptoms of the virus on October 1. 

Her child, a student of Po Leung Kuk Mrs Chao King Lin Kindergarten, has been classified as a close contact of the housewife and sent to Penny’s Bay quarantine center pending the result of a test. 

Asked if the kindergarten needs to suspend face-to-face classes, Chuang said there is no need as the housewife did not enter the school but dropped the child off at the school entrance on the last occasion. 

“She did not visit the kindergarten during her incubation period as well, so we did not tell the school to suspend classes,” she said. 

However, the school issued a notice to students and parents today, hat the school will suspend classes and activities for two days for sanitization.

Another local patient, who was infected from an unknown source, is a 46-year-old woman (case 5122) living in Rambler Crest in Tsing Yi with her family. 

The woman works as a clerk in Chiap Luen Industrial Building in Kwai Chung. 

“She first developed coughs on September 24 during the incubation period,” Chuang said. 

The woman ate at buffets at Gateway Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui on September 14, as well as the Oliver’s Super Sandwich shop in Kowloon Commerce Center in Kwai Ching. 

The staffers at both places will be given specimen bottles for a test, Chuang said.