By Daisy CL Mandap
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| Au says the FEHD will look into whether any anti Covid rules were breached by the bars |
Health authorities are looking into whether two bars in Central where separate outbreaks of Covid-19 have been detected, violated social distancing rules by taking in about 700 customers each on May 21.
Speaking at today’s Covid briefing, Dr Albert Au of the Centre for Health Protection said the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will look into the case, as he reported 275 new infections, 48 of them imported.
Among the new cases were 11 additional customers of the Iron
Fairies bar at Chinachem building on
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Another eight customers of Zentral bar at
According to Au, the capacity of each bar was around 300 people, but the LeaveHomeSafe app showed they had been visited by some 700 people in total between 11pm on May 21 and 2am the next day.
He pointed out, however, that the 700 was the cumulative number of people who went into each club during the indicated period.
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| HOW? PINDUTIN LANG ANG PICTURE |
Au also said that from their investigation, they found out that most of the people who packed the clubs had their masks off as they drank, talked or danced to live music played by a DJ, or disc jockey.
He said the matter has been turned over to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department for an inquiry into whether any violations of the anti-pandemic restrictions had been committed.
Au also said they had found a link between the two bars, but were unsure whether a cross-infection had occurred because they were both visited by two customers.
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The two men who are friends aged 30 and 29, both went to Iron Fairies at about 10:45pm on May 21 and stayed there for about 30 minutes, then headed off to Zentral.
Au also noted that one of the patients in the Zentral cluster reported having symptoms on May 20, whereas the earliest onset of symptoms patients linked to Iron Fairies was May 23, so it remains unclear where the infection had come from in each case.
With the additional cases discovered,
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| Au says Iron Fairies was packed on the night in question and customers took off masks (File) |
Two more Covid-related deaths were reported, involving two women aged 65 and 84, who both had chronic diseases. They pushed up the death tally from the Omicron surge to 9,165.
Au said four more BA.2.12.1 cases were detected, including
three who live together in Mount Parker Lodge in
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They include a five-year-old girl, her mother and their foreign domestic helper.
But Au was quick to reassure that the spread of the coronavirus remains stable, with about 200 to 300 additional cases still being reported each day.
He also noted that while the sub-variant may be more infectious that other strains of the Omicron, it does not lead to more severe illnesses, or increases the risk of death.
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Meanwhile, 45 new Covid cases were reported by 34 schools, including 37 students and seven teachers and staff members. However, these were infections detected over the weekend and earlier today.
Among the new cases were six involving the DSC (Delia School
of Canada)
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| PADALA NA! |
