(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating 29 additional COVID-19 cases, one of which is related to Moon Palace restaurant in Festival Walk.

Among the new cases, 28 are imported and one involves a 38-year-old woman whose husband was confirmed earlier. The couple had lunch at Moon Palace on December 27.

The centre is also investigating a preliminarily confirmed COVID-19 case involving a 66-year-old woman who went to the same restaurant on the same day.

The Government made a restriction-testing declaration at Tower 2, Granville Garden in Tai Wai where the older woman lives, requiring people in the restricted area to undergo compulsory testing before 1am tomorrow.

At a press briefing today, the centre’s Principal Medical & Health Officer Dr Albert Au said the centre has yet to locate six of the 207 patrons who were classified as close contacts in relation to the Moon Palace outbreak.

“For the contact tracing related to the Moon Palace outbreak, we have classified all patrons or customers and staff who had stayed inside this restaurant from 1pm to 3pm on December 27 as close contacts. There were six customers with no contact information.

“We have appealed to the general public that if they were present in the restaurant from 1pm to 3pm (on December 27) to call our hotline so that we can arrange (for) them to be tested and also quarantined.

“We will issue another compulsory testing notice for this restaurant today and those who have been present in this restaurant need to be tested tomorrow. Also, they have to report their results to the Centre for Health Protection by dialling our hotline: 2125 1111 or 2125 1122.

“If they do not comply with the compulsory testing notice, we will take legal action against them."

As for the six cases with no contact information, Dr Au said contact tracing staff will try to find them through their Octopus card or credit card records as well as review the CCTV footage of the mall where the restaurant is located.

Any person who had been at Moon Palace from 1pm to 3pm on December 27 has to undergo testing on January 3 or 4 and report the test result to the centre by calling the hotlines and in any case no later than January 5 after receiving the SMS notification containing the result of the test.

As part of the follow-up action on the Moon Palace outbreak, the centre had earlier collected 44 environmental samples, none of which tested positive. An additional 46 environmental samples were collected today and the test results are pending.

Meanwhile, the whole genome sequencing analysis conducted by the Department of Health's Public Health Laboratory Services Branch confirmed that seven cases carried the Omicron mutant strain, taking the number of COVID-19 cases involving Omicron in Hong Kong to 102.

In view of one preliminarily positive import-related case who had stayed in Hong Kong during the incubation period and two possibly import-related cases, 21 specified places are included in the compulsory testing notice.

One school is also subject to compulsory testing due to outbreaks of upper respiratory tract infection or influenza-like illness.

Separately, the department has prohibited the landing of passenger flights in Hong Kong from Manila, the Philippines operated by Cathay Pacific from January 3 to 16.

It made the move as flight CX906 arriving from Manila on January 1 had seven passengers on board who tested positive upon arrival.

For information and health advice on COVID-19, visit the Government's dedicated webpage.