Omicron scare in Tuen Mun

Top News | Wallis Wang 12 Jan 2022

Authorities are grappling to contain a community spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant in Tuen Mun after a Penny's Bay quarantine center security guard who lives in the district tested preliminarily positive.

They have opened more community testing centers and mobile stations, and extended opening hours.

A latest unknown-source case in the female guard pointed to possible silent transmission chains in Tuen Mun, as four family members operating a pharmacy at HANDS mall in the district were also infected with the Omicron variant.

Chuang Shuk-kwan, the Centre for Health Protection's head of the communicable disease unit, yesterday urged all who live and work in Tuen Mun and even those who have been there to get tested in the next few days.

The eight testing centers are three community testing centers at Siu Lun Community Hall, the Home Affairs Department On Ting/Yau Oi Community Centre and the Kin Sang Community Hall, plus five mobile testing stations at Yau Oi Sports Centre, Yau Oi Soccer Pitch, San Wo Lane Playground, Butterfly Bay Community Centre and Tai Hing Community Hall.

A Polytechnic University study has listed Tuen Mun, Kowloon Tong, North Point, Causeway Bay, Happy Valley and Tai Po as high infection risk regions and forecast Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin, Kowloon Bay, Kwun Tong and Yuen Long will join the list in seven days.

A Tuen Mun school, Mrs Cheng Yam On Millennium School, suspended classes immediately after the 11-year-old primary six son of the pharmacy operator tested preliminarily positive yesterday.

The family contracted the virus from a 44-year-old Cathay Pacific flight attendant who had lunch at Moon Palace restaurant at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong and visited the pharmacy, which triggered the local transmission of Omicron.

Chuang said the boy and his mother tested preliminarily positive yesterday while the father and daughter were earlier confirmed to be infected.

All four have not been vaccinated against Covid-19.

Chuang said the boy had a fever last week and was taken to a private clinic by his parents. However, the doctor did not give the boy a Covid test. The boy last went to school on Friday and took a school shuttle bus to return home.

His mother, a 45-year-old housewife, had a fever last Wednesday but did not see a doctor.

Another Tuen Mun resident living in Po Tin Estate, a 51-year-old female security guard at the Penny's Bay quarantine center, also tested preliminarily positive for the virus yesterday. Po Tin was locked down last night.

Chuang said the security guard is responsible for delivering daily supplies to those in quarantine and helping them with their luggage at Penny's Bay.

She had been wearing protective clothing at work.

It's unknown whether the security guard contracted the virus at work or in the Tuen Men community.

Chuang said the authorities are waiting for her genetic sequencing test results to find out the source of her infection.

"We have quite a number of cases, including the pharmacy family and the security guard, so we believe that there may be some silent transmissions in the community. That's why the government is arranging to increase the number of mobile testing centers in the Tuen Mun area," Chuang said.

"I appeal to the people staying, living or working in this area to get tested so as to stop the transmission in the community."

People should also avoid unnecessary social activities in Tuen Mun, she said.

Meanwhile, long queues of people subject to compulsory tests appeared outside testing centers in Tuen Mun yesterday after the government required all people who visited HANDS mall between December 27 and January 9 to get tested.

More than 2,000 of the almost 500,000 residents of Tuen Mun, including elderly, children and the blind, had been waiting outside the mobile testing station at the Home Affairs Department On Ting/Yau Oi Community Centre since afternoon, some for more three hours.

Hong Kong Polytechnic University found yesterday that the average risk of being infected with Omicron in Hong Kong will increase in the next seven days.



Search Archive

Advanced Search
March 2024
S M T W T F S

Today's Standard