Search for gym buffs as cluster emerges

Recent visitors to the Ursus Fitness gym in Sai Ying Pun are being traced after 10 customers and staff were found to have Covid-19, including a male coach.

The 27-year-old trainer is among eight new confirmed infections - two imported and six local, including three from unknown sources - taking the city's case tally to 11,129, including 203 deaths.

The asymptomatic coach had held small group classes with one to three students at the center on the ground floor of 64-68 Pok Fu Lam Road.

Five staff members and four customers were preliminary positive, prompting authorities to ask those who had been to the gym since March 1 to call the Centre for Health Protection at 2125-1111 or 2125-1122.

The coach had to be tested every two weeks according to health measures required by the government and his samples collected on Monday came back positive.

He worked until Tuesday. The gym said it had been closed since Tuesday noon.

Another unknown-source patient is a 26-year-old male project assistant at the Mental Health Association of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Building-Hostel for Moderately Mentally Handicapped Persons in Kwun Tong.

More than 50 residents and 20 staff from the care home have been sent to quarantine.

The third unlinked case is a 58-year-old man who works in Sham Shui Po and lives in Regency Park, block one, in Kwai Chung.

Meanwhile, doctors' groups demanded authorities not to shy away from its responsibilities and provide clearer instructions on people's suitability to be vaccinated.

This came after three people, including two with diabetes, died days after getting injected with the Beijing-made Sinovac jabs and at least three others were admitted to intensive care units after getting the product.

Despite believing most of their conditions resulted from their preexisting serious health problems, the government advised those with serious and poorly managed chronic diseases not to take the shots and consult family doctors before inoculation.

But Medical Association president Gabriel Choi Kin said it is not enough to rely on private doctors.

He said more doctors are advising people against getting jabs as they fear liability, adding that would affect the drive to fight Covid.

"Like in Singapore's vaccination program for Comirnaty [the BioNTech vaccine], it's specified that people with immune system issues and those who have had liver and kidney transplants are not suitable for the jabs," Choi said.

"The Hong Kong government should make similar clinical guidelines for us to determine who is or isn't suitable for vaccination."

The Hong Kong Doctors Union said it is hard to determine whether those with chronic illness should get jabs. Chan Pui-kwon, union committee on epidemics chairman, said: "The problem is there is no clear definition of illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension being well under control.

"If a doctor believes a patient's condition will improve within a short period, say someone with a high blood sugar level, he will ask the patient to control his blood sugar first and come back in two weeks.

"But for some chronic-disease patients, for example those with poor kidney functions, we worry they would suffer from serious complications upon infection so we'd still inoculate them."

Hong Kong Patients' Voices chairman Alex Lam Chi-yau said medics at vaccination centers should be able to check the medical history of people and act as "a second gatekeeper" to ensure they are suitable for the shots.

"Some elderly people may not be very aware of their own health conditions. In that case, medics can check the system before inoculating them," Lam said.

He said medical professionals should be deployed at vaccination centers to answer patients' questions and help the elderly.

jane.cheung@singtaonewscorp.com