2 students from UK likely have mutated strain, HK tally 53

HONG KONG – Two students who came back to Hong Kong from the United Kingdom likely contracted a mutated COVID-19 strain in Britain, a health official said as the city recorded 53 new virus cases on Wednesday.

In a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection' communicable disease branch, said one of the students is a 14-year-old boy who flew back with three friends on Dec 7 and is still being treated in a hospital.

The other is a 17-year-old boy who returned on Dec 13 alone and had since been discharged from hospital, she added.

Chuang said genome sequencing conducted by the Public Health Laboratory showed that the virus strain the two students had was "apparently compatible with the new virus strain." She added that further investigation was still being conducted.

Although Wednesday's caseload was the lowest since Nov 21, Chuang said there were still 20 untraceable infections among the 47 local cases reported. There were 13 untraceable cases on Tuesday.

A 77-year-old man with chronic diseases, who was hospitalized on Dec 3, died on Wednesday afternoon, becoming the city's 133th coronavirus-related fatality.

The city's total of confirmed infections stood at 8,353. There were also more than 40 patients who tested preliminarily positive on Wednesday, Chuang said.

Noting that the percentage of untraceable infections remained high despite the decrease in daily caseloads, Chuang said the public should not drop its guard as a single untraceable case could lead to a cluster of infections.

She added that people living in two residential buildings in Lam Tin and Tseung Kwan O would be subject to mandatory testing.

The two buildings are Ping Tin Estate Ping Shing House in Lam Tin and Hong Sing Gardens Block 4 in Tseung Kwan O, which had recorded eight and five patients, respectively.

Meanwhile, three female patients, aged 91, 84 and 71, at the United Christian Hospital tested preliminarily positive, Hospital Authority Chief Manager Lau Ka-hin said at the same briefing.

Lau said the hospital is investigating whether their infections were due to visits made by their family members.

Thirteen other patients were identified as close contacts, one of whom had died while nine others were quarantined and had tested negative so far. The CHP would trace the three other close contacts who had been discharged from the hospital.