FIRST CARRIERS OF VARIANT CHARGED
Man accused of giving false or misleading information, woman of failing to give required details
Police last night charged two people who sparked a Covid-19 variant infection scare by being the first two cases to be discovered locally with mutant strains of the coronavirus.
The charging of the man, a 29year-old engineer who flew in from Dubai, and his 31-year-old female friend, came as the government allowed residents sent to quarantine camps in the fallout of the scare to start going home earlier under relaxed rules announced on Friday.
The man was charged with one count of giving false or misleading information and the woman with one count of failing to comply with the requirement to give information.
Under the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance, anyone who knowingly gives false or misleading information in such matters – including whereabouts, medical history and contact with others – faces a HK$10,000 fine and six months in jail.
A Department of Health spokesman said it was a grossly irresponsible act to conceal or provide false or misleading information as this may hinder contact tracing and posed a serious threat to public health. He said resolute actions would be taken against anyone who had breached the relevant regulations.
The city had no new local infection to report yesterday, but confirmed five more imported Covid-19 cases – four from Indonesia and one from Spain. That took Hong Kong’s total to 11,806 cases, with 210 related deaths.
While Hong Kong has managed to bring coronavirus infections under control so far, the emergence of more infectious variants is causing alarm.
The two who became the first cases of variant infections locally have been in the spotlight because authorities only recently uncovered their potential transmission links with three domestic helpers and other related cases, after they failed to keep health officials fully informed of their whereabouts and contacts.
By Friday, health authorities said the infection cluster sparked by the pair had grown to eight cases.
About 1,200 of some 2,000 residents caught up in the variant scare and quarantined in camps were allowed to go home on Friday and yesterday afternoon, according to the Department of Health.
Officials eased rules to let those placed under quarantine for 21 days because of variant infections in their residential buildings leave the camps earlier in batches if test results returned negative.
Those who were released received a note from Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor saying the government understood the tough quarantine rules were causing anxiety and inconvenience.
She thanked them for their understanding and cooperation in contributing to the city’s antiepidemic efforts.
Residents of Royalton I in Pok Fu Lam, Caribbean Coast in Tung Chung, Kornhill in Quarry Bay and Allway Gardens in Tsuen Wan were expecting to be sent home early after the discovery of variants in their private housing estates disrupted their lives.
Under a changed policy announced on Friday, residents of buildings linked to mutated strains do not have to serve 21 days of quarantine as initially required, but they will have to be tested four times over a self-monitoring period. Those living in the same household as an infected person, or staying in environments such as subdivided flats, will have to quarantine.
Centre for Health Protection controller Dr Ronald Lam Mankin said all residents of Parkes Building in Jordan, where the first local variant case was identified, had tested negative over their 21 days of quarantine, which ended on Friday.
Professor David Hui Shucheong, a government adviser on the pandemic, told a radio programme that health authorities expected quarantine facilities to run out of space quickly if residents of entire buildings had to use them.
It would also cause inconvenience to people who were not close contacts of cases, he said.
“There is still an invisible transmission chain in the community, but due to socialdistancing measures and the public’s awareness of hygiene, there are no signs of widespread outbreaks of the coronavirus yet in the community,” he added.
At least 16 people felt unwell after eating supplied meals at Penny’s Bay on Friday, Tsuen Wan district councillor Chiu Yanloy said.
The centre apologised for the “food hygiene problem” and informed them that they would be provided with instant noodles instead of meal boxes.
A health department spokesman said the food vendor’s services had been suspended.
There are no signs of widespread outbreaks … yet in the community PROFESSOR DAVID HUI