Fears spike over first human-to-human case

Hong Kong has had its first case involving human-to-human transmission after a 72-year-old woman has confirmed to have caught the coronavirus from her son, who had been to Wuhan.

That brings the number of confirmed cases to 15.

Cruise passengers are also being urgently traced after an 80-year-old local who was on a ship run by Princess Cruises sailing from Japan became the 14th confirmed case. Another patient is being tested and has been preliminarily confirmed.

Of the confirmed cases, a woman remains critical and two are serious while the rest are stable.

The 72-year-old mother of a confirmed case who lives in Whampoa Garden developed a fever on Saturday and preliminary tests came back positive.

She has confirmed last night to have contracted the disease from her 39-year-old son, who went to Wuhan two weeks ago.

Chuang said that if the mother is confirmed to have contracted the disease from her 39-year-old son, who went to Wuhan two weeks ago.  

Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of communicable diseases at the Centre for Health Protection, said: “The mother was one of the relatives who had been sent to the isolation camp.”

She also said the cruise passenger had gone to Japan with two daughters between between January 17 and 25.

He arrived in Tokyo on a flight and visited Mount Fuji before boarding the cruise ship in Yokohama on January 20 and traveling to Kagoshima.

Chuang said there were over 2,400 passengers and 1,000 workers on the cruise, among whom 130 people, including 86 permanent residents, arrived in the SAR at the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal.

She said the man started coughing on January 19 and had a fever on Thursday, when he was admitted to Caritas Medical Center in Cheung Sha Wan.

“We estimated the onset time to be January 23, when his coughing deteriorated,” she said, adding that despite him having been to Shenzhen during the incubation period, the possibility of his having contracted the virus locally cannot be ruled out, making him the second local case in which the infection source is unknown.

He lives with his wife and mainly left home for walks and errands with his wife.

Chuang said authorities had only a list of cruise travelers, but not their contact information.

She called on them to call the government at 2125-1122.

Prominent local writer Chip Tsao and actress Luisa Maria Leitao said they were on the same cruise. Both said they were not feeling unwell but will isolate themselves at home for two weeks.

Meanwhile, a 68-year-old woman – the seventh confirmed case – was in a critical condition and needed tracheal intubation to maintain her breathing.

The Hospital Authority’s chief manager for infection, emergency and contingency Vivien Chuang Wai-man said a chest scan saw more white shadows in the lung and she is currently staying at the intensive care unit alongside two other man.

The two, 56 and 72 years old, are the second and 10th confirmed cases and in serious condition.