By Daisy CL Mandap
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| 5 customers who ate in this restaurant on May 13 tested positive for Covid-19 |
Another restaurant is at the centre of a new outbreak of
Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong.
Health officials said five diners at the TamJai SamGor
Mixian restaurant in Sheung Wan who had visited the place from about 4:30pm to
6:30pm on May 13 have all tested positive for the coronavirus.
The five patients, aged 26 to 57, did not know each other
and are believed to have sat at different tables, either alone or with friends.
They all had booster jabs.
However, four of them had attended a class at Benchmark at
the Western Telecom Building
in Sheung Wan.
Apart from the four, another patient who attended classes at
Benchmark was also found to be infected. The 35-year-old male patient who did
not go to the restaurant developed symptoms and tested positive on Mar 16.
Health authorities are now trying to determine whether the
virus had spread in the restaurant or during class, where they suspect the
patients must have also taken off their masks, even briefly.
A compulsory testing notice has been issued to anyone who
had been to either place during the relevant times.
Two other restaurants where outbreaks had been reported
earlier racked up more infections.
Three additional infections were linked to Sky Cuisine in
Sheung Wan, taking the total number of cases there to 73; while another three
were traced to Imperial Private Kitchen in Kwun Tong, which now has 29 cases.
These clustered cases were among the 291 new infections
reported by the Centre for Health Protection in the press briefing on Thursday.
The new cases included 116 confirmed through PCR tests and
175 from self-testing using rapid antigen test kits.
According to CHP’s Dr Albert Au, the new infections took the
city’s total tally from the fifth wave to more than 1,197,000.
He pointed out that the number of cases has remained between 200 and 300 in the past two weeks, indicating that the infection remains high.
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| Au says there has been no noticeable easing of the Covid situation in past 2 weeks |
Au also said that there were 38 imported cases reported
yesterday, including 22 that were detected at the airport and 14 during hotel
quarantine.
Two patients tested positive on day 12 and 11 from arrival,
and are suspected to be re-positive cases.
The imported cases who tested positive on arrival or during
quarantine involved people who had flown in from the United States, United
Kingdom, Taiwan, Canada, Mexico, Israel, Norway, Switzerland, United Arab
Emirates, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The patient who tested positive on day 12 had come from France and Thailand,
while the day 11 patient came from the UK.
Meanwhile, the authorities detected another Omicron BA.4
case involving a 27-year-old woman who had three vaccine jabs. She flew in on
May 15 from South Africa,
UAE and Singapore.
She was the ninth newly arrived traveler found to carry the
new Omicron sub-variant.
So far, another 11 imported cases involving five men and six
women with the Omicron BA.12.1 sub-variant have been found, along with 35
carrying the BA.12.2 sub-variant.
The patients had flown in from the US, South Africa, UK,
Canada and Qatar.
Meanwhile, 17 positive cases were reported by 16 schools
involving 15 students and two staff members.
The schools involved included four kindergartens, eight primary
schools, and four secondary schools. In one of the primary schools, two cases
involving siblings were reported.
One more Covid-related death was recorded yesterday, raising
the city’s death tally to 9,153. The deceased patient was a 91-year-old woman
who was an elderly care home resident and had no vaccination record.
Hospital Authority’s Dr Lau Ka-hin said 601 patients are
confined in public hospitals and treatment facilities.
Among them, three are in serious condition while four remain in intensive care in
critical condition.
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