Hong Kong fourth wave: ‘sustained’ evidence of Covid-19 uncovered in housing block sewage, more than 700 households to undergo coronavirus testing
- Residents of 731 flats at Fung Chak House in Choi Wan (II) Estate – as well as recent visitors – must be screened after disease was detected in sewage samples
- Health officials say public hospitals’ infection-control rules will be overhauled amid expanding outbreak at United Christian Hospital
Details of the new coronavirus-detection drive were unveiled on a day that the city confirmed 61 new cases of Covid-19, and health officials said public hospitals’ infection-control rules would be overhauled amid an expanding outbreak at United Christian Hospital.
The wide-ranging reforms included a second Covid-19 test for inpatients with respiratory symptoms who had tested negative in their first one. United Christian, which has seen the largest coronavirus spread in a local hospital with 19 cases to date, will stop taking in new Covid-19 patients as a temporary measure.
On the first Monday after the Christmas break, residents of Fung Chak House at Wong Tai Sin’s Choi Wan (II) Estate awoke to the news that sewage samples taken from their pipes on December 23, 24, 26 and 27 had tested positive for the coronavirus.
They soon learned that officials had ordered mandatory screening for all residents in the block of 731 flats, as well as for those who had visited the building for more than two hours since December 15.
Professor Zhang Tong, whose team in the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) department of civil engineering developed the monitoring programme, and government officials explained that the screening order was backed by the four consecutive positive results across a five-day period, and based on a “precautionary principle” even though none of the building’s residents had previously been confirmed as infected.
“We hope the results [of sewage testing] can provide early signals before we identify confirmed cases,” Zhang told a briefing in the morning.
