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

The Centre for Health Protection said the residential building where four newly confirmed COVID-19 patients reside will not be evacuated.

In a press conference this afternoon, the centre’s Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said that four of today’s six additional cases live in the same building - Luk Chuen House in Lek Yuen Estate - as a 34-year-old woman who was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 earlier. The remaining two are imported cases.

Dr Chuang explained that no architectural defects have been found after it tested the toilets of the four new cases to determine if the virus could have been transmitted via the building’s drainage system or pipes.

“We have tested the toilets of the four new cases. We have taken some environmental samples from the drainage service and vent pipes and all the test results have come back negative.

“As Prof Yuen Kwok-yung has explained last night, no architectural defect has been observed that can explain the transmission route of these few cases. So there is no recommendation to evacuate the building because we have not found any architectural defects."

In its efforts to determine the source of this new cluster, Dr Chuang called on all residents living in same the building to hand in their specimen bottles as soon as possible.

“We want to appeal to all the residents in this building to hand in their specimens, if they have not already handed them in, and we will try to trace the results of all of these residents to ascertain if there are other cases in the building.”

Additionally, the Hospital Authority reported that 50 confirmed COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalised and 1,038 confirmed and suspected patients have been discharged.

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