Hong Kong recorded one local COVID-19 case Sunday, believed to be that of a mainland Chinese woman who was working as a prostitute in a Mong Kok hotel.
According to local media, the 42-year-old woman is understood to have been arrested during a police undercover operation targeting suspected prostitutes in Mong Kok last Wednesday.
She was held at Mong Kok Police Station from Oct. 28 to Oct. 30, police wrote in a statement on Facebook on Sunday. From there, she was transferred to Castle Peak Bay Immigration Center, and later, Ma Tau Kok Detention Center.
The woman said she arrived in Hong Kong in August and lived at the Oriental Lander Hotel, located in Mong Kok, during the duration of her stay in the city.
The source of her infection is not known. Authorities reported that she began experiencing a sore throat on Oct. 30.
Including the patient, police arrested a total of six women during last week’s operation, aged between 24 and 42.
Since the COVID-19 epidemic began, syndicates have reportedly been smuggling sex workers from mainland China so they can avoid the 14-day quarantine measure, and having them work out of hotel rooms in districts including Tsim Sha Tsui, Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok, according to the South China Morning Post.
Read more: 6 myths debunked about Hong Kong’s sex industry
Police have launched a number of crackdowns in recent months to stifle these operations and carried out dozens of arrests.
Sources told the SCMP that the sex workers had meals and daily necessities delivered to their rooms so that the women could avoid leaving their rooms and risking police detection.
According to HK01, a Telegram group with close to 15,000 members is advertising HK$400 (US$52) “full service packages” at hotels including Oriental Lander, where the woman was staying.
