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The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating 63 additional COVID-19 cases, of which 53 are locally transmitted.

Thirteen of the local cases have an unknown source of infection.

One of the linked cases involves a private doctor who runs a clinic at a mall in Grandeur Terrace, Tin Shui Wai.

He took a COVID-19 test on December 20, after two patients that he had treated earlier were confirmed to be infected with the virus.

The doctor last went to work on December 21 when he started to develop an itchy throat.

The centre's Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said they are still tracing the patients that need to undergo COVID-19 testing.

“We are still counting the number of patients that the private doctor had seen during his communicable period and also at the same time when the confirmed COVID-19 patients visited him. We will remind his patients to get tested. I do not have the exact figure of patients yet."

The centre is also not ruling out the possibility that the doctor may have been infected by a patient.

“He saw the two confirmed COVID-19 patients during their incubation period and the time of onset of his symptoms is quite compatible with him being infected by one or another patient.

“Of course, we cannot be 100% sure whether he really got infected by patients or in the community. But because there is an obvious link with these patients, we assume that it is more likely than not that he got infected by patients,” Dr Chuang added.

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