Advertisement

Omicron: second infection tied to family member of diner in restaurant cluster sparks fears of growing outbreak, as health chief warns Hong Kong at ‘tipping point’

  • Latest case involves wife of construction worker who dined at Moon Palace restaurant at Festival Walk
  • Health secretary Sophia Chan also says she will not rule out a fourth shot for recipients of Sinovac vaccine

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
99+
Moon Palace restaurant at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong. Photo: Felix Wong
Fears over an Omicron outbreak in Hong Kong grew on Sunday after the wife of a man linked to a restaurant cluster was suspected to be infected with Covid-19, as the city’s health minister warned the situation was at a “tipping point”.
Advertisement

Authorities have sent hundreds of close contacts of the infected diners into quarantine, but health experts are holding off from recommending tighter social-distancing rules as it remained unclear exactly how the virus spread around the Moon Palace restaurant at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong last week.

Hong Kong also confirmed 26 Covid-19 cases on Sunday, all but one of which involved arrivals while the remaining infection was classified as import-related.

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee again urged residents to get vaccinated and take their booster shots as soon as possible.

“We are watching the situation closely, but we are at a tipping point,” Chan told a radio programme.

In the latest development of the restaurant cluster, a 38-year-old woman who ate there with her husband on December 27 was listed as a preliminary-positive case.

Advertisement

She last visited her workplace at Sandoz Centre on Texaco Road in Tsuen Wan on December 30, where authorities will carry out compulsory testing.

Advertisement