Tin Shui Wai girl listed as positive case involving mutated virus

Hong Kong today reported one local confirmed case, involving a 17-year-old girl in Tin Shui Wai who carried the N501Y strain of Covid-19, ending the city’s record of zero local infection for 42 days in a row. 

Earlier today a research team from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University after genetic analysis said the mutated virus strain is the Alpha variant, previously referred to as the UK/Kent variant. 

Health officials are still investigating the source of her infection, according to Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection's Communicable Disease Branch. 

The girl is a student at Queen Elizabeth School Old Students' Association Tong Kwok Wah Secondary School. She lives at Shing Yu House, Tin Shing Court in Tin Shui Wai. 

She had been to an education center at Tak Wing Industrial Building in Tuen Mun, the 27th HK International Education Expo held at Hall 1C of Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, and a jewelry shop on the ground floor of the center. 

She also had been to Little Boss, a pet shop and Men Wah Bing Teng located at Tung Choi Street in Mong Kok. 

She developed symptoms on June 2 and tested preliminary positive the following day. Yesterday she was admitted to hospital and tested positive for the mutated variant strain. 

Some 100 people were listed as close contacts, in which about 80 are her classmates, Chuang said. They were all sent to a quarantine center. 

Chuang also reported less than ten preliminary positive cases, in which one is the mother of the girl. The others were imported. 

The girl’s mother, who is a housewife, tested negative on May 26 and 30. She then underwent a virus test yesterday and the test result showed preliminary positive today. Her CT value read between 16 to 19. 

The city’s case tally now stands at 11,852.