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| Two recent fatalities were residents of Kong Tai elderly home, shown here being disinfected (TheStandard photo) |
A 90-year-old female resident of a virus-plagued elderly
home in Tsz Wan Shan passed away this afternoon, Jul 15, becoming the ninth
patient to die from Covid-19 complications in Hong Kong .
According to Dr. Lau Ka-hin, chief manager of the Hospital
Authority, the elderly resident of the Kong Tai Care for the Aged home, was
reported to have died at 4:45pm at the Pamela Youde
Nethersole Eastern
Hospital
The patient, who had diabetes, was admitted to the hospital
on Jul 9 with no symptoms, but her condition turned critical yesterday.
She was the second patient from the elderly home to succumb
to the disease. On Monday, a 95-year-old female resident of the care home also
died, becoming the city’s eighth fatality from the disease.
At today’s press briefing, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre
for Health Protection also reported 19 new confirmed cases, and 37 preliminary
positive ones, meaning, they need to test positive a second time to be
classified as confirmed.
Asked if this indicated a significant drop in the number of
people getting infected in Hong Kong , Dr
Chuang urged caution, saying “the reason I am giving you the preliminary
positive cases is because I don’t want to give you that false impression.”
She said many of the preliminary positives could be
confirmed later on in the evening, indicating that the recent spike of between
40-50 cases per day is far from over.
Of the 19 positive cases, five were imported, or were
brought in by people who recently arrived in the city.
Among these are two seafarers from the Philippines , and two domestic workers, one of
whom was due to start working in Hong Kong for
the first time. The first arrived via Hong Kong Airlines, and the other, on
Philippine Airlines.
The fifth infected new arrival was an air crew on a flight
that came from India
Half of the new local cases are linked to earlier cases, but
half were again of unknown source.
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| The Tsz Wan Shan estate, where a big number of the recent cases were detected |
Among the linked cases is the male employer of a Filipina
domestic worker in Tsz Wan Shan who tested positive yesterday.
Another cluster involves a 44-year-old cook at Windsor
Restaurant in Tsz Wan Shan, who was found infected along with her two
daughters, aged 17 and 19.
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Also linked to a previous case is that of 1 57-year-old
booking officer at the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, whose husband
tested positive earlier.
A third immigration officer assigned to the Immigration Tower
Special mention was made of three elderly patients at Queen Elizabeth
Hospital
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Since then two other patients who stayed in the same ward
were also found to have the virus. One is a 77-year-old woman who was in a bed
across the first patient, and the second is a 64-year-old cancer patient.
The cases have led calls for elderly patients to be tested
for the virus before being admitted to hospitals for unrelated ailments, even
if they are asymptomatic.
Lau said that current health protocols require residents in
all care homes and those who are in mental wards to be given tests even if they
do not show symptoms.
