Advertisement
Coronavirus: More than 100 Tsing Yi residents evacuated as Hong Kong health authorities confirm two cases from same block
- Precautionary move sparked by case of woman who lives on third floor of Hong Mei House at Cheung Hong Estate
- A string of newly confirmed cases citywide reported from Monday evening into the early hours of Tuesday brings local total to 42
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
More than 100 residents in 35 households at a public estate in Hong Kong were evacuated in the early hours of Tuesday after two people in the block were confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus.
Advertisement
The precautionary move was sparked by the case of a 62-year-old woman in flat 307 on the third floor of Hong Mei House at Cheung Hong Estate. She was Hong Kong’s 42nd and latest case as of 1.30am on Tuesday.
She was found to have lived 10 floors directly below a man in flat 1307, who was confirmed earlier to be Hong Kong’s 12th case.
While comparisons were quickly drawn with Amoy Gardens in Ngau Tau Kok – the scene of a rapid infection during the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in 2003 – University of Hong Kong microbiologist Professor Yuen Kwok-yung said this was not the case in Tsing Yi.
Yuen said a vent pipe, which connected to a discharge pipe in a bathroom was not properly sealed and could have carried the virus – present in faeces – into other toilets by extraction fans.
“When a person turns on the exhaust fan inside the toilet, the air inside the drainage system can enter via the ventilation pipe,” he said.
As a precaution, Yuen said all flats numbered seven on every floor had to be vacated so their piping could be inspected.
Advertisement