Coronavirus: Hong Kong uncovers Delta, Omicron cases in community, with 1 untraceable and another attributed to possible cross infection in quarantine hotel

The untraceable Delta case, which is still considered preliminary-positive, involves a woman who works at a pet shop in Causeway Bay

The Omicron one involves a traveller who recently returned to her home after completing hotel quarantine only to test positive five days later

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People queue up for compulsory Covid-19 testing at a mobile specimen collection station in Victoria Park on Sunday. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 3:35pm, 16 Jan 2022Updated: 10:37pm, 16 Jan 2022

Hong Kong uncovered coronavirus cases in the community involving both the Omicron and Delta variants on Sunday, one attributed to a potential cross infection in a quarantine hotel and another whose source was as yet unknown.

In the first case, a woman who had recently returned to the city from Pakistan tested positive for the coronavirus five days after completing hotel quarantine, sparking fears of a new Omicron cluster. Another patient had previously been identified in an adjacent room at the same hotel, raising the possibility that the infections were linked.

“The woman said she didn’t leave home during the five days before testing positive … but her family members did,” Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said. “We don’t rule out that she was infected in the community, but we also suspect there was a cross infection in the hotel.”

Meanwhile, a preliminary-positive case involving the Delta variant was identified in Aberdeen with no known source of infection, bringing the number of untraceable cases in the current outbreak to two. The woman was said to have worked in a pet shop in Causeway Bay called Little Boss.

Calling the two new developments a worrying sign, a leading government health adviser said the Delta infection could have been caused by an import-related case slipping into the community.

The 43-year-old woman who returned from Pakistan on December 20 had tested negative six times during her 21-day quarantine at the Silka Seaview Hotel Hong Kong in Yau Ma Tei. She returned to her home in Sham Shui Po’s Tai Hang Tung Estate on January 10 but tested preliminary-positive five days later, with the result confirmed on Sunday.