Coronavirus Hong Kong: second local Delta case triggers fears of fifth Covid-19 wave
- People living in Block 10 of Tai Po Centre locked down, but overnight testing identifies no new infections
- Latest local case involves woman who is a colleague of 27-year-old confirmed as having more infectious strain on Friday
A second local Covid-19 case likely to involve the more infectious Delta variant has put Hong Kong on heightened alert, with a health expert warning that a busy shopping centre could become a “superspreading” site and trigger the city’s fifth coronavirus wave.
Authorities ordered a residential block in Tai Po into overnight lockdown for mandatory virus screening on Sunday evening after a 24-year-old woman who lived in the building, and worked with the city’s first local Delta variant patient in customer services at Uptown Plaza mall, was also confirmed to have the coronavirus.
As of Monday morning, the overnight testing had identified no new cases.
The latest developments prompted a stark warning from Dr Leung Chi-chiu, a respiratory medicine specialist and a former chairman of the medical association’s advisory on communicable diseases.
“Transmission has almost certainly taken place in that shopping mall as both patients worked there,” he said.
“The fact that both work in customer service, in such a busy mall with such foot traffic, could lead to a superspreading event and kick off the fifth Covid-19 wave in Hong Kong.”
