2 FDWs from PH with Covid-19 variant among 11 new cases

Hong Kong has recorded 11 new Covid-19 cases on Friday including three newly arrived domestic workers—one from Indonesia, and two from the Philippines—and pushing the city’s coronavirus caseload to 11,067.

The three FDWs are the imported cases, while the eight remaining cases were all locally transmitted. Of the local transmissions, four had no traceable source of infection.

A Department of Health staff told Hong Kong News that both FDWs from the Philippines, aged 29 and 25, carried a coronavirus variant with an N501Y mutation. The variant is reported to be more contagious.

All three recently-arrived FDWs tested positive for the coronavirus on the second sample they submitted.

Another part-time domestic worker in a village house in Clearwater Bay was confirmed with Covid-19, and is among the four untraceable Covid-19 infections. She was logged as a preliminary positive case yesterday.

The other three cases with no discernible source are two clerical staff and a student who did not attend face-to-face classes. One of the staff worked at the Labour Department in Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices.

Fewer than 10 people tested preliminarily positive for the coronavirus, a DH spokesman said.