2 arrivals from PH positive for COVID-19, HK airport repairman infected

The Centre for Health Protection in Kowloon City.

Two recent arrivals from the Philippines tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and an aircraft repairman at the Hong Kong International Airport was also confirmed to be infected.

The Centre for Health Protection on Thursday said the two Filipinos, one being a seafarer, arrived on Nov. 3 via Philippine Airlines flight PR300.

They are among the six imported COVID-19 cases, with other cases coming from Turkey, Brazil, India, and Russia.

The repairman is the lone local case. His source of infection is unknown, said Dr. Chuang Shuk-kwan from the CHP.

He last went to work on Oct. 27. Three days after, he felt unwell at home in his home in Kam Tin and got tested for COVID-19 the same day.

During the incubation period, he did not go to work but he took his children to several football matches across Hong Kong. Chuang said he maintained a distance from other parents as he watched his kids play. He had also taken his children to a mall in Kowloon Bay.

One of his children has a sore throat, but both of them tested preliminarily negative for COVID-19. Should his children be confirmed positive, participants in those football matches will be quarantined since they did not wear masks during the game.

Chuang said the man also had daily contact with cabin crew members.

Hong Kong has so far recorded 5,356 cases of COVID-19 infection.