Discovery Bay International School suspended, 120 students sent to quarantine

Discovery Bay International School must suspend classes as its 120 students have to complete a three-day quarantine, health authorities said. 

Hong Kong reported five new imported cases on Thursday, including three cases involving crew members. 

Two of them, aged 29 and 57, were Cathay Pacific pilots. Both left Hong Kong on October 31 for Germany and returned to Hong Kong on November 6 on the same flight (CX2066) from Frankfurt. 

Their specimens collected upon arrival at Hong Kong International Airport tested negative. However, samples collected on Monday tested positive. 

The 57-year-old westerner lived with his wife and his two sons at a house in Headline Village, Discovery Bay. 

His wife teaches at Discovery Bay International School, and the two children also study there. All their schoolmates must complete a three-day quarantine, during which the school will close. 

The 29-year-old's infection triggered a lockdown at Harbour Pinnacle, Tsim Sha Tsui on Tuesday night. No cases were identified. 

Authorities are tracking down the locations visited by the two pilots by reviewing security footage and their Octopus card records. They included Maison Eric Kayser on Minden Avenue, Tsim Sha Tsui. 

Thirty-seven locations are named in a compulsory testing notice. 

The last crew member infected was a 34-year-old non-local who arrived on Qatar Airways flight number QR818. He tested positive for the N501Y variant.

The Centre for Health Protection said authorities will review whether quarantine exemptions should be tightened after balancing public health risks and aviation demands.

Center controller Edwin Tsui Lok-kin said flight crew must observe a “closed-loop” management by only taking point-to-point transportation and stay in the hotel when they are overseas, in addition to regular tests when they are in Hong Kong.

As for the remaining two cases, one was a 15-year-old girl who arrived from Italy by flight QR818 via Qatar on October 14. She stayed at Empire Hotel Causeway Bay, as well as Gateway Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.

The last one was a 34-year-old man who arrived from Qatar via flight QR8340 on November 8. He stayed at Hong Kong Sky City Marriott Hotel, Chek Lap Kok.