The SUN HK : Cross infection in Regal hotel, 6 new Covid-19 cases reported

23 November 2021

By The SUN

3 passengers on Emirates flight from Dubai tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival

Emirates flight EK384 from Dubai and Bangkok has been suspended from flying to Hong Kong for two weeks after three of its passengers who arrived on Nov 21 tested positive on their arrival test. The suspension will last from today, Nov 23, until Dec 6.

The three passengers on EK384 who originated from Pakistan, were among six new confirmed Covid-19 cases reported today.

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Earlier, health experts said they found evidence of airborne Covid-19 transmission in Regal Airport Hotel in Chek Lap Kok between two men who stayed in opposite rooms on the fifth floor.

Genomic sequencing showed a 36-year-old man who had flown in from South Africa with the N501Y mutant strain had passed it on to a 62-year-old man from Canada who was diagnosed five days after the first man was confirmed to have the virus.

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Microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung said the younger man did not wear surgical masks in his hotel room and sometimes even opened his door without wearing any masks, allowing the coronavirus to get into the corridor, and eventually infecting the older man.

Yuen also noted the first patient mostly wore a valve mask, which he described as “selfish,” as it mainly filtered the air he breathed in, and not what he expelled.

Experts found cross-infection between two guests at Regal Airport Hotel

Meanwhile, the three patients who came via the banned EK384 flight comprised two women, aged 33 and 24, and a six-year-old boy. The older woman and the boy both had the L452R mutant strain while the test result on the other woman was inconclusive.

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The three other patients included a 23-year-old man who came from Pakistan on Nov 13 and was on his 8^th day in quarantine at Silka Far East Hotel when he tested positive, and a 74-year-old man who flew in from the United States on Nov 19 and spent his quarantine at Best Western Hotel in Sai Ying Pun.

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The last was a 27-year-old woman who came from the United Kingdom via VS206 and tested positive on her arrival test on Nov 19. She left for London on Nov 7 after testing negative for Covid-19 in Hong Kong the day before.

As she was in Hong Kong during the incubation period and carried a mutant strain, her residential building, Winning House on Wing Lok Street, Sheung Wan, will be put under compulsory testing notice.