The Government tonight made a restriction-testing declaration for On Kin House, On Tin Estate in Lam Tin due to a preliminary positive imported COVID-19 case involving the L452R mutant strain.

The Centre for Health Protection said the 28-year-old female patient returned from the US to Hong Kong.

She left on November 20 for the US after testing negative for COVID-19 on November 18. She arrived in the city yesterday by flight SQ007 and her specimen collected upon arrival at Hong Kong International Airport tested positive for the virus.

The patient is symptomatic and her specimen carried the L452R mutant strain. She received two doses of the BioNTech vaccine on June 23 and July 14 in Hong Kong.

In view of the presence of a mutant strain, the Government decided to make a restriction-testing declaration for On Kin House.

The declaration took effect from 7pm and aims to be finished by about 7am tomorrow. People in the restricted area are required to stay in their premises and undergo compulsory testing before 1am tomorrow.

Those who have undergone testing from November 30 to December 2 and can provide the SMS notification or related certification containing the test results do not need to get tested again.

According to today’s compulsory testing notice, people who had been at the premises for more than two hours from November 4 to December 2 must undergo compulsory testing by December 4 even if they were not in the restricted area when the declaration took effect. Vaccinated people are also subject to the requirement.

The patient works at 10/F, Wheelock House in Central and she last went to work on November 19.

The places where the patient had visited in Hong Kong during the incubation period will also be included in a compulsory testing notice.

Meanwhile, the centre provided an update on the latest investigations on an imported case involving a 38-year-old male patient who arrived from Qatar on November 24 for transit.

The centre said it has classified 16 staff working at the airport as close contacts of the case and they are required to undergo compulsory quarantine at Penny's Bay Quarantine Centre.