Hong Kong fourth wave: Covid-19 patient identified in housing block where coronavirus traces found in sewage, as city reports 68 new cases
- Health officials also reveal that for the first time a mutated strain of the virus seen in South Africa has been found in an arrival
- Officials admit that a public hospital lost a quarantined patient for an hour, the third runaway in about two weeks
While announcing another 68 confirmed coronavirus cases on New Year’s Eve, health officials also revealed that for the first time a mutated strain of the virus seen in South Africa had been found in an arrival from that country.
Officials also admitted that a public hospital had, for one hour, lost a patient who had been sent from a quarantine camp and later tested preliminary-positive for the virus, the third such runaway in about two weeks.
Of the new cases on Thursday, all but six were local transmissions, 18 of them from unknown sources. The city’s tally of confirmed infections currently stood at 8,846, with 148 related deaths.
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A 66-year-old male resident of Kai Fai House at the Choi Wan (II) Estate in Wong Tai Sin was among the newly logged infections on Thursday, after a mandatory testing order was issued a day earlier after sewage samples consistently tested positive for the virus. The block was among 43 buildings issued with such an order on Wednesday.
