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| World-Wide Plaza is a favorite shopping place of Filipinos |
The
World-Wide House management said today, Apr 14, that a woman under home
quarantine, which government records show is a Filipina, did visit its building
on Apr 8.
The
woman, who was
in the Philippines Constellation Drive
Despite not showing any symptoms, she was found to have Covid-19
on Apr 10 and was taken to North
District Hospital
A staff
of World-Wide House management said they confirmed the information directly
from the Health Department’s Centre for Health Protection.
But the
CHP did not give additional details, like which part of the building was
visited by the woman, whether it was the office block or the adjacent shopping
mall frequented by Filipinos.
This was
after a CHP spokeswoman denied the link to World-Wide House during a phone call with The SUN on Easter Monday, Apr
13. This being a public holiday, the World-Wide House office was shut.
On
Sunday, Apr 12, management sent out an advisory to shop owners and tenants
advising them of the infected woman’s visit, and said it was going to disinfect
the whole building that day.
The staff
said the disinfection was carried out in the office block earlier that day, and
in the mall after the shops were closed that night. She said the building or
the mall will not be closed down after the disinfection.
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She also said the CHP’s Chinese website (www.chp.gov.hk) does mention World-Wide House
in connection with the Filipina woman, identified as patient no. 981.
There is also a mention of World-Wide House among the list of
buildings visited by an infected person in the CHP’s website.
In its advisory to shop occupants, World-Wide House management said
it recognized their concerns, and had therefore ordered a “thorough cleaning
and disinfection of public areas and facilities (of the building) immediately.
Earlier, another rumor, since denied, had been passed on by
Filipinos on social media about an infected Indian woman who supposedly works in
one of the remittance centers in World-Wide House.
But this did not stop Filipino netizens from insisting that the
rumor was true, prompting the owner of one pinpointed shop to threaten those
spreading it with a lawsuit.
The report about the infected person’s visit has spooked many
shopowners already reeling from the double impact of the anti-government
protests last year and the coronavirus outbreak that started early this year,
which have kept many of their customers away.
One shop owner says having World-Wide tagged as a possible source
of infection could result in even greater hardship for them.
