By The SUN
 |
| CHP says about 40 dined at Imperial Kitchen, located in this industrial building in Kwun Tong |
Health officials say they are looking into whether
any of the patients linked to a coronavirus outbreak in a private kitchen in Kwun Tong has
violated anti Covid regulations by providing authorities with false
information.
At the regular press briefing on Tuesday, the Centre
for Health Protection also reported a new restaurant outbreak, involving the
TamJai Yunnan Mixian in Tung Chung.
CHP’s Dr Albert Au said three customers who didn’t
know each other but sat quite close to one another while having lunch last Wednesday
all came down with coronavirus. He said one of the patients was already feeling
sick when he went to the restaurant.
Au reported 328 new infections, which took the
total tally from the Omicron outbreak to more than 1.193 million. No new death
was announced.
He also said an investigation is being carried
out into whether some of the 20 people who caught Covid-19 after visiting
Imperial Kitchen in Kwun Tong had deliberately misled them.
The first patients in the cluster told
authorities that they had been to the private kitchen for just a few minutes to
buy food, but Au said this did not make sense, given the number who were
infected.
After the CHP began questioning those in the list of people who had been to the place at the time in question, it emerged that a big group had
gathered there to eat and drink.
"Some then told us that there were around 40
people together at the private kitchen, some of them don't know each
other," he said.
Nine more cases were added to the cluster today,
raising the total number of infections so far to 19 diners and one staff
member.
But among the recent case, the biggest outbreak happened
at the Sky City Cuisine in Sheung Wan where 64 cases have now been confirmed.
An additional eight cases - five customers and three staff – were added
to the list today.
Separately, one more case was linked to the Sun Mong snooker club
in Hung Hom, raising the total infections there to 15. A 56-year-old male customer tested positive yesterday
after complying with a compulsory testing notice.
Those infected include 13 customers and two staff members.
At the same time, 20 more cases were reported from 20 schools, involving
two kindergartens, seven primary schools, nine secondary schools, and one
special school.
According to Au, four new imported cases involving the new Omicron
BA.4 variant have been found through genome sequencing.
The patients are three men and one woman who came from the United
States and Canada.
There are now seven patients who came from overseas who have been
found to carry the Omicron sub-variant.
The day’s 39 imported cases, meanwhile, include 23 who were
detected at Hong Kong Airport. They had flown in from various countries
including the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Australia, Taiwan, Canada, Iceland, and India.
Eleven of them were
confirmed during the seven-day hotel quarantine.
Dr Lau Ka-hin, a chief
manager at the Hospital Authority said that as there were no additional Covid-related
death yesterday, the city’s death tally remains at 9,148.
Of the 686 patients
receiving treatment at public hospitals and infection control facilities, 10
are in critical condition and 15 are in serious condition.
Also undergoing
treatment is a female patient in the severely mentally handicapped unit of Siu
Lam Hospital who developed a fever on May 14 and tested positive later.
Seven patients staying
in the same room have been listed as close contacts.
The hospital
subsequently learned that a staff attending to patients had tested positive for
Covid, so authorities are now looking into a possible connection between the
two cases.
The hospital has since suspended
the admission of new patients
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