Test crunch for two top officials on evacuation flight from Wuhan

Two senior officials who went on evacuation flights to Wuhan, epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, must undergo tests for the Covid-19 virus after a 38-year-old woman who returned on one of the charter flights from there was found to be infected.

The woman, who took the fourth government-chartered flight from Hubei province back to Hong Kong on Thursday, was confirmed on Saturday to be the first among the 469 evacuees to be infected with the highly contagious virus.

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip Tak-kuen and Director of Immigration Erick Tsang Kwok-wai were on the same flight together with a 40-man team involved in the evacuations, but they said they need not be quarantined as they had taken protective measures and never set foot outside Wuhan Tianhe International Airport.

A government spokesman also said yesterday that Nip and Tsang were in healthy condition, noting they were seated away from the 128 evacuees on the flight and did not have any contact with them.

So the two "were not classified as close contacts of the confirmed patient," he added. "But they will be put under a 14-day medical surveillance in accordance with the law, but they will undergo a virus test as a precaution."

Also playing safe, everyone who took part in the operation, as well as cabin crew members on the flight, could have a virus test, though it would be a voluntary basis.

Immigration Department officers are meanwhile assisting in the case of a Hong Kong passenger on the Diamond Princess cruise line who died in Japan on Friday.

British officials were helping with arrangements for another deceased Hongkonger, who had a British passport. He died on February 28.

The man who died on Friday was the third foreigner from the virus-hit cruise ship docked off Yokohama for over two weeks to die.

Four other fatalities among the 696 of 3,600 passengers and crew on board with the virus were Japanese.

As of Friday, 45 now-former passengers on the Diamond Princess from Hong Kong have recovered from the virus and been discharged from hospital in Japan, with 31 of them returning to the SAR.

michael.shum@singtaonewscorp.com