Housing block to be partly evacuated

June 4, 2020

Centre for Health Protection Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan:
Because we do not have any evidence of structural defects in this building yet, that’s why the route of transmission through the pipes and drainage system is a hypothesis. 

On the first day, during June 1, (there was) a joint visit led by Prof Yuen Kwok-yung and Under Secretary for the Environment Tse Chin-wan. At that time, because the four units are not vertically staggered - some of them are on the same floor of the affected unit and one is above and one is below, it was very difficult at that time to arrive at a conclusion that the pipes are problematic to explain the units affected. That’s why at that time, we took some environmental samples just to make sure the pipes were not affected at that moment.

But now we see another case and so we have three cases in units of one direction, so it’s very difficult to explain (the problem as) purely environmental contamination. That’s why to play safe, we will evacuate the residents.

For the other units, we will observe the situation because we have taken the samples from all the residents and all of them have come back negative so far. That’s why we asked them to observe their symptoms and seek medical advice as soon as possible.

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

Residents living in units 10 and 12 in Luk Chuen House in Lek Yuen Estate, Sha Tin, will be evacuated, the Centre for Health Protection announced today.

Briefing the media this afternoon, the centre’s Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said a 72-year-old man who resides in unit 12 of the building tested positive for COVID-19.

The patients of two previous cases also live in unit 12, she noted.

Dr Chuang explained the centre believes that the virus was transmitted through the building’s pipes and drainage system, as no structural defects have been found so far.

Noting that an inspection of Luk Chuen House was conducted on June 1, she said that it was very difficult at the time to arrive at the conclusion that the pipes are problematic.

“That’s why at that time, we took some environmental samples just to make sure the pipes were not affected at that moment.

“But now we see another case and so we have three cases in units of one direction, so it’s very difficult to explain (the problem as) purely environmental contamination. That’s why to play safe, we will evacuate the residents.

“For the other units, we will observe the situation because we have taken the samples from all the residents and all of them have come back negative so far.”