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Coronavirus pandemic
Hong KongHealth & Environment

Coronavirus: Hong Kong airport worker tests preliminary-positive, threatening city’s 50-day streak of no local infections

  • The man, vaccinated and regularly tested as part of his job, would be the first local case since another airport employee tested positive in August
  • City also confirms eight new imported cases, while elder care sector representative touts positive response to new jabs scheme

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A worker at the Hong Kong airport’s cargo handling facility has tested preliminary-positive for Covid-19. Photo: Nora Tam
Victor Ting
A Hong Kong airport worker has tested preliminary-positive for Covid-19, potentially ending the city’s 50-day streak of zero local infections.
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The development emerged as an industry insider on Thursday said the government’s new pilot scheme to ramp up vaccination rates among residents of care homes for the elderly was receiving a positive response.

Local health authorities also confirmed eight new imported cases involving arrivals from Pakistan, Nepal and the Philippines.

The latest infections took the city’s overall tally to 12,251, with 213 related deaths.

A more worrying situation centred on Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited, confirming an earlier Post report that health officials were investigating one of its employees, who tested positive for the coronavirus in the morning.

The 48-year-old man, who works as an airport cargo handler, had undergone weekly Covid-19 testing as part of his job requirements. He had tested negative on September 29 but a sample he submitted on Wednesday was found to be preliminarily-positive for the L452R mutant strain, the Centre for Health Protection said.

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