Helpers' dormitory cluster triggers mandatory tests

Jane Cheung

Filipino and Indonesian helpers who have stayed at or visited a Tai Po boarding house from November 15 are being urgently traced to require them to undergo mandatory Covid-19 tests after eight from the dormitory tested positive yesterday.

Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection said the boarding home - unit 1C, Fung Nin Building - has been issued an order for mandatory testing and warned that those who do not comply face prosecution.

Hong Kong yesterday reported 98 cases - nine imported and 89 local - as authorities ordered compulsory tests for two public housing blocks at Po Tat Estate in Kwun Tong and Choi Wan Estate in Wong Tai Sin.

Chuang said 30 of the cases came from unknown sources. The tally rose to 7,222 including 123 deaths.

More than 70 preliminary positive patients are awaiting confirmation.

She said the boarding house cluster first came to light on Monday with two infected helpers, one of whom is believed to have infected four people in her employer's family, including a six-month-old baby.

Chuang said several more helpers who stayed at dormitory had tested preliminary positive and worried more cases could emerge. She said the employment agency in charge of the flat handed over a list of a dozen helpers' names. Authorities then sent 33 close contacts, including helpers and employers, to quarantine.

"But we're not sure if we have got all of them," Chuang said. "We've heard that some helpers pending new employment lived there for a long period. Some stayed overnight only on weekends and some only during day time on their days off."

She said authorities were concerned as many of the infected helpers were asymptomatic and "each helper could link to one employer family."

Chuang added: "That's why we issued a mandatory test notice to all visitors of the boarding house from November 15. Employers should remind their helpers to take the test if they have been there."

She said the center will reach out to the Filipino and Indonesian consulates to spread the message.

Similar outbreaks at helper dormitories were recorded in the third wave in the summer. At the time, authorities required newly arrived helpers to quarantine at hotels for 14 days and offered voluntary tests.

All residents of Tat Yi House at Po Tat Estate and Ming Lai House at Choi Wan Estate, as well as visitors who have been there since November 20, are also subjected to compulsory tests.

Both buildings now have cases from four units, reaching the threshold to mandate tests on all residents of the two blocks.

Mobile specimen collection stations will be set up outside the two buildings from today to Sunday.

The cluster in Tung Tau Estate in Wong Tai Sin saw two new patients, but Chuang said they were family members of previously confirmed cases and the number of infected flats remained at six.

She said 16 residents in units 15 between the 25th and 28th floors of Kwai Tung House have been evacuated, including two that were unwell and sent to hospital after three other flats were infected.

Chuang reminded the public to maintain household hygiene by closing windows, doors and making sure their U-traps are filled with water at all times, especially those in dense and high-rise residential districts in Hong Kong.

"Don't wait until a confirmed case emerges in your building. It's likely that by that time, you've already been exposed to the virus," she said.

jane.cheung@singtaonewscorp.com