By Daisy CL Mandap
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| Thousands of Tuen Mun residents line up for tests amid fears of silent transmissions (RTHK photo) |
The Omicron-fueled spread of the coronavirus in Tuen
Mun appears to be widening, with two nurses being reported as having tested preliminary
positive on Thursday, Jan 13.
Speaking at the daily press briefing, Dr Chuang
Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection said the two female patients
worked for the same clinic chain in Tuen Mun where they also live, but they had
no overlapping duties.
One of them, a 21-year-old parttime nurse, assisted a
doctor in his clinic at Gold Coast Piazza on Jan 3 in examining an 11-year-old
boy with symptoms wearing only a surgical mask.
The boy was not given a test and he was confirmed
infected on Jan 12. He was believed to have caught the virus from his father
who sold a bottle of shampoo to an infected Cathay flight crew at his
dispensary in the H.A.N.D.S. mall in Tuen Mun. The father infected his
wife and a daughter as well.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Chuang said the Jan. 3 examination of the boy was the
likely source of the nurse’s infection, even if she stood behind the doctor a
few feet away.
The nurse worked parttime at various clinics in the chain and attended
classes at Baptist University’s School of Continuing Education.
The second nurse, who is 22, also worked at the clinic
chain, but was on different shifts.
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As a precaution, everyone who worked with the two
nurses during the incubation period will be quarantined, she said.
Their residential blocks, identified as JC Place Tower 1, 345 Castle Peak Road –
Castle Peak Bay and Block 2, Hoi Tak Gardens, 13-17 Wing Fat Lane, both in Tuen
Mun, have been put on overnight lockdown.
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| Pindutin para sa detalye |
Meanwhile, the case involving a female security guard
at Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre who also lives in Tuen Mun showed how fast
Omicron could be passed on.
She tested negative for the virus on Jan 8 as part of the
regular screening for camp staff. The next day, she posted a notice on the room
door of a guest who tested positive afterwards, with just a screen partition
between them. She developed symptoms on Jan 10 and tested positive on Jan 12.
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Genome sequencing directly linked her
to the infected guest, causing her case to be labeled import-related instead of
untraceable.
The outbreak in Tuen Mun sparked fears of a silent
transmission and led experts to advise residents in the district to undergo
testing.
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| 4 doctors at Prince of Wales who checked on the maskless patient will be quarantined |
Another preliminary positive case that is causing concern is that of a 29-year-old Pakistani male who worked at a construction site and doubled as a Panda food delivery crew.
The man met an accident and was rushed to the Pamela
Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital where he was put under intensive care. He was
then moved to Prince of Wales Hospital for an emergency surgery.
In line with standard procedure, he was tested and was
found positive with a low viral load initially, before giving a Ct reading of
13, which indicated he was highly infectious. Subsequent tests all returned a
negative result, however.
Chuang said the man is suspected to be a re-positive
case but further investigations are being carried out. As a precaution,
patients who shared a cubicle with him in the hospital were all moved to
isolation rooms.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
But four doctors at Prince of Wales who examined him
while he was maskless were sent to quarantine.
The CHP reported 14 Covid-19 cases for the day, five
of them local transmissions. They took Hong Kong’s total tally to 13,016.
Asked if the decline in
the number of cases indicated that the latest outbreak had been contained, Chuang
said it was too early to say simply because links were found among the locally
detected infections.
“They were detected in
the community, so they spent some time in the community and that would also
cause some transmission,” she said.
She also reminded everyone that Hong Kong has imposed a ban on passenger flights coming from eight countries, which could be the real reason why fewer cases were being reported.
