42 COVID-19 cases reported

July 9, 2020

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

 

The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating 42 additional COVID-19 cases, comprising 34 local cases and eight imported ones.

 

At a press briefing this afternoon, the centre’s Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said 23 more people at Kong Tai Care for the Aged in Tsz Wan Shan are now infected.

 

She added that nine local cases have epidemiological linkage with other cases confirmed earlier, three of which are taxi-drivers.

 

So far, there are up to six taxi drivers who are affected in the spike of locally transmitted COVID-19 cases currently under investigation.

 

Dr Chuang explained that the centre will be publishing the infected drivers’ license plate numbers in an effort to track down patrons or colleagues who may have come into contact with them.

 

“We are aware that there are so far five or six taxi drivers that are affected. We will publish their taxi numbers on our website. I understand that most taxi customers will not remember the taxi that they took. So we are exploring with telecommunication companies to see whether we can search (for) or find out those passengers who took the taxis during a certain period of time.”

 

To reduce the risk of cluster infections, Dr Chuang explained that the centre will also conduct targeted testing of taxi drivers.

 

“Also for those taxi drivers who are working for certain companies, a few selected companies, we will conduct contact tracing of all the other taxi drivers and distribute (specimen) bottles to see whether there are some other asymptomatic infections.”

 

Dr Chuang urged taxi drivers with virus symptoms to immediately seek medical attention, while those asymptomatic can request to have a COVID-19 test sent to them.

 

“So we call upon the taxi drivers who have visited Sun Fat Restaurant and also Bun Kee Congee & Noodle Foods or have been in contact with some of the newly confirmed cases to go to hospitals if they have any symptoms. If they are asymptomatic, they can write an email to us at bottle@dh.gov.hk and we will send them bottles (for) testing.”

 

There are two local cases with unknown sources of infection, Dr Chuang added.

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