Coronavirus: Cluster at Hong Kong elderly care home where operator may have ignored guidelines pushes number of new cases in city to 24
- Cleaner at stricken centre in Tsz Wan Shan may have worked at another facility in same building
- Nineteen of the latest infections are local, the highest single-day tally in more than three months, with several coming from an unknown source
Health officials reported a total of 24 new cases, with the 19 local cases accounting for the highest single-day tally in more than three months, as they warned the city was facing a major community outbreak while battling a third wave of infections.
The surge in cases took the city’s total to 1,323, with seven deaths, while the number of schools suspending face-to-face classes amid the recent spike rose to at least 13.
Several of Wednesday’s new cases were linked to the Kong Tai Care for the Aged Centre Limited in Tsz Wan Shan, where concerns were raised over the practice of sharing staff with another facility upstairs.
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“We are worried there will be a major community outbreak, as many of these cases do not have identifiable sources of infection,” Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch at the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), told a press briefing.
Eight of Wednesday's cases were linked to the care home in Tsz Wan Shan, taking the total there to nine, but the source of infection for five of the 11 other local cases had yet to be traced.
Health officials classified five of the new cases as imported – two from India and the Philippines and one from Kazakhstan.
Chuang said one of the confirmed cases at the care home for the elderly involved a cleaner who worked for both the stricken centre and another one on a higher floor in the same building.
