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| The 3 new cases were under quarantine in Chun Yeung Estate in Fo Tan (RTHK photo) |
Hong Kong health officials say the coronavirus may never go
away, as they reported three new imported cases today, May 17.
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection said
in today’s press conference that the three new cases were all new arrivals from
Pakistan. They included a 79-year-old man, a 39-year-old woman and her
10-year-old daughter.
Chuang said the man went to visit his relatives in Pakistan
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| Pindutin pra sa detalye! |
He arrived on Saturday via a Qatar Airways QR 818 flight
from Pakistan via Doha.
The mother and daughter, today’s second and third cases, went
to Pakistan with family members on Mar 6 and were on the same Qatar Air flight as
the male patient. The mother had a mild cough and headache but her girl did not
have symptoms.
All three patients were transferred to a hospital from the
quarantine centre in Chun Yeung estate.
The CHP said today’s count excluded a 29-year-old male Hong
Kong resident who tested positive in Britain on May 14. After his condition
improved, he flew to Hong Kong on Friday via Cathay Pacific flight CX252.
He tested positive on arrival and was sent to Prince of
Wales Hospital.
The new cases brought the total number of infections in Hong Kong to 1,055, with four related deaths.
Chuang said the first batch of 1,000 tests on residents of
Lei Muk Shue Estate in Tsuen Wan, where an elderly couple who tested positive
last week lives, and a tutorial center their granddaughter attended, all came
back negative.
The three, who all live in Tsuen Wan, were the first locally
acquired cases reported in more than three weeks.
Earlier on Sunday, Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan
warned that Hong Kong people have to get used to the “new normal” of having the
coronavirus in their midst indefinitely.
Chan was echoing the remarks of Mike Ryan, executive
director of the World Health Organization health emergencies program, who said
“the virus may never go”.
“As experts suggested that the virus may not be eliminated
completely and could become endemic, Hong Kong
has to rethink how to embrace the ‘new normal’,” Chan said in a radio program.
Health officials have said earlier that the initial targets
are staff at the airport and will also include patients in psychiatric wards.
