2 initially test positive for virus

January 29, 2020

Centre for Health Protection Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan: The two cases consist of an elderly couple aged 73 and 72 and they came to Hong Kong on January 22 through flight KA853 and then they stayed in two hotels according to the preliminary information. They were sent to the hospital last night. One person was found to have fever and the other one had some chest X-ray consolidations, so they were admitted and tested and the preliminary tests were positive. So we are tracing the hotel contacts, especially the onset time of this couple and after the onset, whether they had contact with any other residents in the hotels and the cleansing staff for the rooms they stayed in may be classified as close contacts. And also the rooms, the residents who stayed in the rooms after them may be classified as close contacts. It all depends on our field investigations which are being carried out.

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Preliminary tests showed that two seniors from Wuhan are positive for novel coronavirus, the Centre for Health Protection announced today.

The centre’s Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan made the announcement at a press conference this afternoon.

The couple, aged 73 and 72, came to Hong Kong on flight KA853 on January 22 and stayed in two hotels, Dr Chuang said, adding that they were sent to hospital on January 28.

She said: “One person was found to have fever and the other one had some chest X-ray consolidations.

“They were admitted and tested and the preliminary tests were positive.”

Dr Chuang also said the centre is tracing hotel contacts and looking into whether they had contact with other hotel residents.

She added that cleansing staff for the rooms they stayed in and people who subsequently stayed in those rooms may be classified as close contacts.

The centre will update reported cases of novel coronavirus infection on its dedicated webpage.