Distancing rules extended as local cluster now has 9 positive cases

By Daisy CL Mandap

The eight-to-a-group rule has been extended to Jun 18

The government has extended an eight-person limit on public gatherings until Jun 18 after four more residents of a Shatin public housing estate tested positive for Covid-19 today, Jun 2, bringing the total infections in the same building to six.

However, the resident who first tested positive has been linked to three other cases, raising the total number of infections in the cluster to nine.

Hong Kong’s total tally now stands at 1,093 with four deaths and 1,043 recoveries.

Health Secretary Sophia Chan dismissed a suggestion that the decision to extend the gathering limit was meant to deter anti-government protests, like the annual Jun 4 commemoration of the Tienanmen crackdown,

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“We are considering different factors based on public health and not other considerations,” Chan said.

She pointed out that the new local outbreak happened two days ago and was not planned.

The social distancing protocols are set to expire on Thursday, Jun 4.

Set for a longer extension is the ban on foreigners arriving in Hong Kong, which will now be in place for two more months, or until Sept 18. Returning residents will still be allowed in, but subject to the 14-day mandatory quarantine.

The ban on tourist arrivals will remain in place until Sept 18

At today’s press briefing by health officials, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection said there were six new cases today.

Four are all women, aged between 56 and 78, and live in Lek Yuen estate where a couple who were diagnosed on Sunday, also live.

The first case in the cluster is a 34-year-old woman who was rushed to Prince of Wales Hospital on Saturday in critical condition. Tests revealed she had the virus, along with her 56-year-old husband.

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Linked to her are her two female co-workers at Kerry Logistics in Kwai Chung, aged 36 and 40, who tested positive on Monday, raising the possibility that it was a workplace contamination.

Found infected on the same day was the 27-year-old ambulanceman who took her to hospital.

But the result of the tests on some 1,200 residents in Lek Yuen estate where she lives, now suggest the virus must have first spread in their building.

However, Chuang said "no architectural defect" was found in the pipes of their building, so it was not considered as the contamination route. Thus, she said there is no need to evacuate residents from the building. 

As in the case of the last local transmission detected two weeks ago, the source of the new outbreak remains unknown.

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Chuang said the two other cases recorded today are both classified as imported.

One is a 15-year-old boy who returned to Hong Kong last month from Pakistan, and was found positive after being tested again just before he was set to leave a quarantine facility.

The other is a 42-year-old woman who stayed in the quarantine center to look after an elderly relative who had also just returned from Pakistan.

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Filipina helper to face trial for alleged ill-treatment of 2 toddlers

By Vir B. Lumicao

The Filipina will be trieid in Eastern Court after denying the charge

A Filipina domestic helper will be tried in Eastern Court in September on eight counts of ill-treating her two young wards on four occasions last year.

Magistrate Bina Chainrai set the trial after the defendant, K.B., pleaded not guilty today, Jun 2, to ill-treating her employers’ children, aged 3 and 5, in the family’s flat on Conduit Road in Mid-Levels, Hong Kong.

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The prosecution said the incidents happened in April, June, July and August last year.

No other details of the alleged maltreatment were disclosed at the hearing.

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The Filipina was quiet and sullen as the magistrate and lawyers from the prosecution and defense panels discussed preparations for the trial.

The prosecution said it had obtained medical reports on the impact of the ill-treatment on the two victims. 

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Chainrai set the trial for Sept 7-8 after consulting lawyers for both sides.

She directed the prosecution to submit the facts of the case three days before the trial and the defense to prepare its objections to the video recorded interviews in writing.  

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The magistrate extended the bail of K.B. under the same terms and told her return to the court on the trial dates.  

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Over 2k more Filipino DHs lose jobs in May

By Vir B. Lumicao

Nearly 7,000 Filipino DHs have been displaced since Covid-19 struck HK in February

A total of 2,106 Filipino helpers lost their jobs in Hong Kong last month, according to the latest Immigration Department data, in line with a general drop in foreign domestic helper population.

The latest job losses brought the total Filipino DH population down to 212,855, or a drop of 6,873 since February, when the coronavirus contagion hit the city.

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Indonesian domestic helpers, the second-biggest FDH group in Hong Kong, saw their ranks in May shrink by 2,370 month-on-month, bringing their total population down to 165,377.

Despite the significant decrease in the number of FDHs last month, the figures still did not reflect the actual situation, as many helpers fired by employers or who broke their contracts could stay up to a month or longer, in line with an Immigration directive meant to ease the effects of travel restrictions in many countries.

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The job losses in Hong Kong comes as the Philippines’ Department of Labor and Employment reported that nearly 100,000 OFWs displaced during the coronavirus crisis are stranded in various sites abroad.

The Dole command center in Manila recorded a total of 98,615 stranded workers as of May 29, based on reports from 40 Philippine labor posts abroad, including Hong Kong.

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Dole said the OFWs are either distressed workers seeking to be repatriated or those whose work contracts have expired but cannot return to the Philippines due to the absence of commercial flights.

Of the total stranded OFWs, Dole said 3,082 are in Asian countries while 83,483 are in the Middle East and 12,050 are in Europe and America.
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Officers of the Overseas Workers welfare Administration had said even before the coronavirus pandemic hit Hong Kong in late January that there was already an average of two terminations per day.

There could be more during the contagion crisis, according to the Mission for Migrant Workers, which based its estimate in April from an average of 2-3 terminations per day reported to them by walk-in clients seeking assistance.

The rate of terminations has visibly accelerated as more employers suffer business losses or unemployment as many companies reel from the economic impact of the Covid-19 contagion.

“The OFWs are either affected by lockdowns in their respective host countries — those distressed seeking to be repatriated or those whose work contracts have expired but cannot return to the Philippines due to the absence of commercial flights,” the Dole said in a statement.

Foreign domestic helper population in Hong Kong, 2020

As of end of Month/Year	Philippines	Indonesia	India	Other nationalities	Total -- all nationalities
Jan-20	219,728	170,898	4,838	4,657	400,121
Feb-20	217,654	171,291	4,857	4,619	398,421
Mar-20	218,002	170,318	4,818	4,594	397,732
Apr-20	215,061	167,747	4,723	4,493	392,024
May-20	212,855	165,377	4,664	4,446	387,342

Source: Immigration Department

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Fears of new local outbreak as 4 more people found infected in housing estate

By The SUN

Four more residents of a building in a public housing estate in Shatin have reportedly tested preliminary positive for Covid-19 tonight, Jun 1, bringing the total number of infected people there to six.

The first two cases in Luk Chuen House in Lek Yuen Estate involve a 34-year-old woman who is in critical condition in Prince of Wales Hospital, and her 56-year-old husband.

If confirmed, the four additional cases will bring Hong Kong's total tally to 1091.

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Three other cases linked to the sick woman were revealed by health officials today.

The first two, both women aged 40 and 36, work with her at the Kerry Logistics warehouse in Kwai Chung, while the third is an ambulanceman who took her to the hospital on Saturday.

According to local media reports, the four new confirmed cases are all women, aged 55 to 88 years old.

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They were among more than 600 residents of the housing estate who were given sample bottles after the couple was found infected on Sunday.

The reports say it is not known whether the new confirmed patients had any physical contact with their previously diagnosed neighbors.

A similar cluster outbreak happened earlier in Cheung Hong Estate, Tsing Yi, where a total of seven people were infected. An inspection revealed that two of the patients lived in the same flat number, 7, but were separated by 10 floors.

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Experts later concluded that the virus must have spread through the pipes because of a faulty plumbing design in the building.

The same cause was cited in the mass infestation that occurred in Amoy Gardens in Kowloon during the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in 2003.

The virus also spread in this food factory where the first patient in the cluster works

Earlier on Monday, health officials urged private doctors to immediately send any patient with respiratory symptoms for Covid-19 testing, after noting that all three women who worked in the Kerry warehouse had been to private clinics after feeling unwell.

Undersecretary for Health Chui Tak-yi said the authorities are concerned about the latest cluster of local infections, which occurred after two weeks of no local transmission.

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He reminded private doctors they should get patients tested for coronavirus even if their symptoms are mild.

Another concern was the low-level infection found in the paramedic, the first health frontliner in the city to contract Covid-19.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection said the man had performed some procedures on the sick woman, but was only wearing a surgical mask and not an N95 respirator.

Chuang said the paramedic was asymptomatic with a low viral load. She said this was “strange,” as it could mean he had been infected before.

He has been classified as a “probable cause” and was not yet added to the official list of infected people.

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3 new local Covid-19 cases today include a paramedic

By The SUN

The first patient in the cluster remains in critical condition in Prince of Wales Hospital

Hong Kong health officials have urged private doctors to send any patient with respiratory symptoms for Covid-19 testing, after a paramedic who took an infected woman to hospital Saturday was himself found with the coronavirus disease.

The 27-year-old man is the first medical frontliner in Hong Kong to have tested positive for the virus, and is one of three cases reported today, Jun 1, bringing the total tally to 1,087.

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At today’s press briefing, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection said the man had performed some procedures on the sick woman, but was only wearing a surgical mask and not an N95 respirator.

Chuang said the paramedic was asymptomatic with a low viral load. She said this was “strange,” as it could mean he had been infected before.

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The 34-year-old woman was taken by an ambulance to Prince of Wales hospital where she remains in critical condition. She and her 56-year-old husband both tested positive yesterday.

Two of the woman’s colleagues, at a Kerry logistics warehouse in Kwai Chung, aged 36 and 40, were found weak positive yesterday, but were today added to the list of confirmed cases. Both reported falling sick toward the end of April.

The source of their infection is still being determined.

 

All 3 women worked at the Kerry food logistics warehouse in Kwai Chung (RTHK photo)

According to Chuang the three women patients all consulted private doctors in Kwai Chung, but were not sent for testing.

Undersecretary for Health Chui Tak-yi said the authorities are concerned about the latest cluster of local infections, which occurred after two weeks of no local transmission.

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He reminded private doctors they should get patients with respiratory problems tested for coronavirus even if their symptoms are mild.

The last local case was reported on May 14, when a 62-year-old man who had no symptoms tested positive after his 66-year-old wife and eight-year-old granddaughter both fell ill, and were found infected.

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Tests conducted among more than 1,000 people in their neighborhood yielded no new case. The origin of their infection remains unknown.

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Filipina DH admits role in money laundering but denies taking part in scam

By Vir B. Lumicao

The Filipina says she lent her 2 ATM cards to a man she met for the first time

A Filipina helper who gave her two ATM cards to a British man she met on Facebook two years ago pleaded guilty today, Jun 1, to two charges of conspiring to launder nearly $1.6 million believed to be money her friend had scammed from other people.

Estrella Gumabay, 44 and a mother of two girls, was ordered put in jail by Magistrate Raymond Wong after she admitted her guilt. She will be sentenced on Jun 22.

Gumabay had been out on bail earlier.

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She was arrested last September after police investigating two online scams followed the money trail to her Hang Seng Bank and Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp accounts.

She was charged with two counts of conspiring to deal with property known or believed to be proceeds of a crime, a euphemism for money laundering.

The prosecution said Gumabay would execute a statement that police can use to find and arrest the scammer, a man identified only as Williams.

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Wong gave the prosecution two weeks to get her statement before her sentencing.

The case stemmed from separate complaints of online scams reported by two female victims, teacher Cheng Ngan-ping, 40, and hospital manager Chan Tsz-yan Cindy, 49.

Cheng told investigators she met a certain Dennis Leung on Facebook in 2018. On Sept 22 that year, Leung said he had sent her some gifts but requested courier fees. She remitted $21,500 to a Hang Seng account two days later.

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She reported the case after the man asked for more money.

Chan recounted a similar experience with a man named Chiwang Chales who she met on Facebook. On Dec 24, 2018 he told Chan he had sent her gifts and asked for Customs payment.

She sent $19,500 to an HSBC account but never got the gifts. Chiwang later vanished.

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Police consolidated the two investigations and discovered that the Hang Seng and HSBC accounts were opened on Aug 31 and Aug 18, 2018, respectively, by Gumabay.

On further investigation, police learned that for the Hang Seng account, some 30 deposits totaling $485,959.43 were made. Likewise, 42 ATM withdrawals totaling $485,839.50 were made from the account.

 

A total of $1.1 million was deposited into the maid's HSBC bank account

For the HSBC account, police found 37 deposit transactions totaling $1,104,637.38. They also noted 75 withdrawals and transfers totaling $1,104,300 from the account via ATM. The transactions were made between Sept 3, 2018 and Jan 18, 2019.

The prosecution said the transactions in both accounts were in Hong Kong dollars and excluded the cash that Gumabay used to open the accounts.

When police arrested the defendant, they did not find any bank documents relating to the two accounts. Neither did they find any evidence on her mobile phone.

In two statements she gave the police, the defendant said she came to Hong Kong in 2008 as a domestic worker. She was earning a salary of $4,520 plus food allowance each month, part of which she sent home. 

She said did not know Cheng and Chan, and neither she did she know their phone numbers and Facebook accounts. She denied knowledge of the online scams.

The defendant said she opened the Hang Seng account for her savings and the HSBC account for receiving a loan repayment from her friend.

Gumabay said after meeting Williams, he told her he was coming over for a vacation and wanted to send her money to spend on his visit. She said she agreed and when they met for the first time here, she gave her the two ATM cards and their passwords.

On their second meeting, he did not return the ATM card as he reportedly said he still had money in the accounts, Gumabay said. She said she wasn’t aware of how Williams used the cards.

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