By The SUN
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| Parkes Building was evacuated after the two were found to carry the variant |
Hong Kong Police have confirmed the arrest this morning of the Indian male returnee and his Filipina girlfriend who were identified as the first two local patients found with the Covid-19 variant, on suspicion of providing misleading information to investigators doing contact tracing.
Health experts say the 29-year-old Indian man who flew
in from Dubai on Mar 19 is the index patient in a cluster of variant cases
involving eight people, three of them Filipina domestic workers.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
His 31-year-old Filipina girlfriend with whom he lived
in Parkes building in Jordan after completing his 21-day hotel quarantine at Ramada
Grand Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui was subsequently found to also carry the variant.
According to media reports, the two were detained at the
Yau Ma Tei police station for questioning. The man was reportedly held on
suspicion of giving misleading information, while the woman was arrested for
refusing to provide details of her whereabouts during the infection period.
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| Pindutin para sa detalye |
The reports said the man was discharged from the hospital on Apr 28 and the woman on May 1.
They were arrested just as the residents of Parkes
Building who were all moved to a quarantine center were allowed to return home
after completing 21 days of isolation.
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| A Parkes resident returning home after 21 days of quarantine |
A police spokeswoman said they would not add to what has already been reported, and suggested the Department of Health be consulted for more information.
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The DH is reportedly consulting with the Department of
Justice on whether prosecution is warranted.
Under the Prevention and Control of Disease
Ordinance, it is an offense to refuse to provide information required by a
medical practitioner, or give misleading information. An offender could be
liable to imprisonment of up to six months.
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Health officials who reported about the man’s
variant infection on Apr 14 had said initially that he did not go around much,
and mentioned only two bank branches near Jordan, and a restaurant in Cheung
Chau among the places he visited.
But after a Filipina domestic worker living in
Tung Chung, along with her 10-month-old ward were found to carry the same
genomes of the virus as the Indian man, more details emerged about the pair’s
whereabouts during the infection period.
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The two reportedly told investigators they had
been to Citygate outlet mall and had dinner at a curry place, both in Tung
Chung. They also related going to another restaurant in Discovery Bay.
The subsequent discovery that three Filipina
helpers who live in different districts carried the same variant led to more
disclosures from the duo.
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| Tunghayan ang isa na namang kwentong Dream Love. |
Health officials said the couple had dinner
with the woman’s family members in Chai Wan on Apr 13. Then on Apr 18, three of
the guests in that gathering held another party at a Sham Shui Po flat where
the three Filipina helpers, including the one in Tung Chung, were present.
Linked to this cluster apart from the couple
and the three domestic helpers are the woman’s mother whose infection was
confirmed on Friday, the baby girl in Tung Chung, and the infant’s mother who
tested positive after being moved to a quarantine center.
Meanwhile, four of the five new cases reported
today are all women, aged 29 to 40, who had recently returned from Indonesia
and tested positive while in quarantine. The fifth is a one-year-old boy who
came from Spain and was found infected while in hotel quarantine.
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