Hong Kong woman who attended scandal-hit birthday party of Witman Hung sentenced to 160 hours of community service for misleading health officials tracing Covid
- Celia Wong misled officials by hiding fact she had visited supermarket and met friends only hours before attending party thrown for Witman Hung on January 3, 2022
- ‘Not only did she pose a great risk of infection on others, but she also threatened our public health as a whole,’ Magistrate Ophelia Yap says
Magistrate Ophelia Yap Ching-ching of Kowloon City Court imposed the non-custodial sentence on Celia Wong Sze-nga, 38, on Monday after finding her guilty of four counts of knowingly giving false information to health officials.
“Not only did she pose a great risk of infection on others, but she also threatened our public health as a whole,” Yap said. “The court should impose a deterrent sentence for such a serious offence.”
Wong misled health officials by hiding the fact she had visited a supermarket and met friends at a social gathering only hours before attending the party thrown for Witman Hung Wai-man, a former deputy to the country’s legislature, on January 3, 2022.
Dozens of senior officials, legislators and more than 200 guests were invited to Hung’s birthday party, held in Wan Chai, just days before the government announced that social-distancing measures would be tightened to combat a rise in Covid-19 cases.
Authorities subsequently reduced the seating capacity of each restaurant table to a maximum of two to six people, depending on the catering premises.
Wong was the first guest at the party to test positive for the virus.
