Two local Covid cases with unknown sources uncovered

Health authorities said on Tuesday that community tests have uncovered two local coronavirus cases with unclear sources of infections.

The Centre for Health Protection said the patients are a construction worker and a domestic worker, who was found to be carrying a mutant strain of Covid-19.

Both patients are asymptomatic and had tested negative for the virus in previous rounds of tests.

The construction worker is a 43-year-old man who lives in Shek Wah House of Shek Lei Estate in Kwai Chung, and works at a construction site for the Tseung Kwan O-Lam Tin Tunnel.

A Covid-19 test he took on May 9 came back negative. But his test result from a test at a community testing centre in Tsuen Wan on May 23 came back positive.

The other local case is a 37-year-old domestic worker who lives at her employer’s residence in Tai Tung Wo Liu Village in Sai Kung.

A test she was required to take on May 9 came back negative, but a subsequent mandatory test on May 22 returned a positive result.

The Department of Health said her test revealed that she was carrying the N501Y mutant strain and the E484K mutant gene, but not the L452R mutant gene.

Authorities said she had been to the Fo Tan Branch Office of the Immigration Department on April 30 and May 11; to Block 8 of Villa Oceania in Ma On Shan on May 9 and 16; and to Ma On Shan Park on May 1, 2 and 23.

The government said anyone who went to the same places that these two patients visited will need to be tested.