After a two-day streak without any new infections, Hong Kong has recorded one new imported case of COVID-19, bringing the city’s total number of cases to 1,041.
During today’s coronavirus briefing, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Center for Health Protection said the latest case involved a 27-year-old woman who arrived in Hong Kong this morning.
The woman is a Hong Kong citizen residing in the United States. On April 11, she lost her sense of taste and smell and began experiencing other symptoms such as a sore throat and blocked nose. Her symptoms subsided about a week later.
The patient returned to Hong Kong on flight CX 881 and gave a deep throat saliva sample at AsiaWorld-Expo after landing. As the flight arrived in the morning, she was able to stay at the testing facility until her results came back, and therefore has not come into contact with anyone other than airport and health workers. Chuang noted that the patient was also traveling alone, making hers a “fairly straightforward imported case”.
Today marks the 15th day since a locally transmitted infection was last recorded in Hong Kong. When asked if she considered the local transmission chain to be broken, Chuang said the situation was “improving”, but refrained from calling it “under control” as the city had not gone through two incubation periods without local transmissions yet.
Meanwhile, the government is reportedly considering relaxing social distancing rules. According to Ming Pao, the government is discussing the possibility of increasing the number of people allowed to dine in public together from four to six or eight, while retaining other rules such as maintaining a 1.5m distance from other groups and keeping partitions between tables.
The SCMP reports that the plan is expected to be put forward to the Executive Council tomorrow, following approval from public health advisors.
