Six sought as Omicron cluster set to grow

A sixth diner at Moon Palace has tested preliminary positive for Covid as six others who may have contracted the highly transmissible Omicron variant are still being sought.

The sixth diner was a 66-year-old retired woman who sat at another table 20 to 30 meters away from the first infected customer - a now-sacked Cathay male flight attendant - on December 27.

The Centre for Health Protection's principal medical and health officer Albert Au Ka-wing said the woman lives in Granville Garden block 2 in Tai Wai and was sent to the Penny's Bay on December 31. Her block was cordoned off from 7pm yesterday and all residents had to undergo tests by 1am today.

The woman, who has received two doses of the Sinovac vaccine, was coughing and had throat pain on Sunday and tested preliminary positive yesterday.

After having lunch at Moon Palace, the woman went to Lek Yuen community testing center, Royal Ascot block 8 and several restaurants, including Peking Garden, Sweet Canteen and Cafe de Coral in Sha Tin, Au said. Those premises will be slapped with a compulsory testing notice.

Au said six customers sitting at two tables at the same time as the aircrew have not been found yet, adding the government will issue another compulsory notice, requiring them to get tested by today.

"Our staff in the contact-tracing office will review CCTV in the mall in order to identify their whereabouts and we will see whether we can find them according to their Octopus records and other credit card records," Au said.

According to the Prevention and Control of Disease (Compulsory Testing for Certain Persons) Regulation, a person who fails to comply with a compulsory testing order could be fined up to HK$25,000 and jailed for six months.

The Moon Palace is connected to Japanese restaurant Toriten next door by two aisles. The two premises also share the same internal washroom. But Au said diners at Toriten do not have to be quarantined because they did not have contact with Moon Palace diners and the infected cases did not use the shared washroom.

Apart from the Moon Palace cluster, a family member of a previously infected Cathay Pacific female flight attendant, who was detected on Saturday, also tested preliminary positive yesterday.

The 35-year-old man lives at Nam Tin Building in North Point and has not been vaccinated.

He works at Benefit Capital Investment Co at the Metropolis Tower in Hung Hom and has visited several restaurants and bars in Hung Hom, Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui.

Hong Kong yesterday recorded 29 new cases, including one possibly linked to the Moon Palace cluster and 28 imported cases.

Au said 20 of the 28 imported cases were from the Philippines, including 10 being quarantined at Courtyard Hong Kong Sha Tin, adding the authorities have required people staying at the same hotel floor to undergo tests every day.

The city also recorded around 40 preliminary positive cases yesterday and most of them were imported cases, Au said.

Government adviser David Hui Shu-cheong said authorities may have to put Moon Palace diners who have yet to be found on a wanted list as a "last resort." And a tracing function should be added in the LeaveHomeSafe app, he added.

"The app does not have a tracking function and the government cannot increase its functions in such a short time. We can only appeal to those diners to give themselves up," he said.

The Pottinger Hong Kong hotel in Central and Mira Place in Tsim Sha Tsui were among 19 places listed in a compulsory testing notice issued in the early hours yesterday after they were visited by patients.

People who had been to these places must have completed their first test yesterday.

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com