Evacuations at a Sha Tin housing estate are underway following confirmation that another resident has tested positive for COVID-19, health authorities said Thursday. Five more imported cases were also reported, all of them returnees from Bangladesh.
The patient, a 72-year-old man, is the seventh resident at Luk Chuen House, Lek Yuen Estate to be diagnosed with the virus. He lives in a flat numbered 12, the same unit as two patients who had earlier tested positive. Authorities say they do not rule out the possibility that the virus could have spread via the drainage system.
Residents from the second to the 15th floor living in flats numbered 12 and 10—where a patient with the virus also lives—will be evacuated and their pipes will be thoroughly checked for damage or defects.
The total number of people that will be evacuated is “fewer than 100,” Chuang Shuk-kwan, the Head of the Center for Health Protection’s Communicable Disease Branch said during a press conference.
The man is the ninth case to be linked to a 34-year-old woman, a potential “super spreader” who tested positive for the virus on Sunday. She is likely to have also infected her husband, two of her colleagues at Kerry Logistics warehouse in Tsuen Wan, four neighbors, and a paramedic who brought her to the hospital.
The woman has no travel history, and it is unclear where or who she caught the virus from.
Authorities have collected and tested 1,200 saliva samples from residents in Luk Chuen House, and are following up on six more households that have yet to respond to calls for testing.
In light of the new cases, authorities announced Tuesday that social distancing measures restricting gatherings larger than eight people would be extended for two more weeks until June 18. There are now 1,098 COVID-19 infections in the city.
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