The Government tonight made a restriction-testing declaration for Sea View Mansion, 82-87 Connaught Road West in Sheung Wan in view of an imported preliminary positive COVID-19 case involving the L452R mutant strain.

The Centre for Health Protection said the 32-year-old patient travelled to the US on July 25 and returned to Hong Kong on August 5 via Doha on flight QR818. His pre-departure tests conducted on July 24 in Hong Kong and August 2 in the US both tested negative.

His specimen collected upon arrival at Hong Kong International Airport tested preliminary positive for COVID-19. The test result from the Department of Health’s Public Health Laboratory Services Branch revealed that the patient carries the L452R mutant strain but not the N501Y or E484K mutant genes. He was asymptomatic.

Investigations also found that he received two doses of the BioNTech vaccine in Hong Kong on April 7 and 28, while his blood specimen tested positive for anti-spike protein antibodies on July 19.

The patient had stayed in Hong Kong from July 15 to 25. As a prudent measure, the Government decided to make a restriction-testing declaration for Sea View Mansion in Sheung Wan where he had stayed.

The declaration took effect from 7pm and aims to be finished by about 7am tomorrow. People in the area subject to compulsory testing will need to be tested by midnight.

Those who have undergone testing from August 4 to 6 and can provide a testing proof are not required to take the test again, but all residents in the building will need to be tested on the third, seventh, 12th and 19th day counting from the day the case is announced.

Moreover, the patient worked at 40-44 Bonham Strand in Sheung Wan from July 15 to 25. This venue as well as the places he had visited during the incubation period are included in a compulsory testing notice which requires specified people to get tested.

In view of a non-locally confirmed case who had lived in Hong Kong, one specific premises is also included in the compulsory testing notice.