Superspreader fears spark 3 days of Covid-19 testing at Hong Kong block

Hong Kong authorities have placed a public housing block under a three-day restriction order for more than 2,500 residents to undergo daily Covid-19 testing, after a suspected Omicron superspreader was believed to have infected 16 others in the building.

Earlier in the day, health officials, racing to contain a growing wave of cases, ordered residents in about 20 buildings on Hong Kong Island to undergo mandatory testing after discovering the virus in sewage samples. Yuen said they believed the family member of the index case – the infected woman, who had recently returned from Pakistan and later tested positive after spending three weeks in a quarantine hotel – could have passed the virus on to estate cleaners and security guards, who in turn infected residents.

Yuen and Au said they believed the superspreader had brought the virus to Yat Kwai House on Jan 13, triggering an outbreak over the following days until Jan 16. The discovery of the Delta variant at the Little Boss pet store in Causeway Bay triggered a cull of about 2,000 hamsters, most of which were imported from the Netherlands. Eleven samples taken from the rodents have tested positive and a sales assistant was found to be infected.

“It is possible that [the saleswoman] did not directly transmit the [virus] to the customer,” Chuang explained. “The customer stayed in an environment where there are animals and she has a hamster at home so we don’t know which is the exact source of infection but it is possible animal-to-human transmission did occur.”

Among them was a student living in Kwun Tong carrying the Delta variant, which had a genetic sequencing different from the virus that infected the Little Boss saleswoman, according to Chuang. “This is the only possible common path we could find at this moment. Of course if there are other instances such as [meal sharing] … that may explain the infection more,” Chuang said.

The suspension came after the Omicron cluster, believed to have been sparked by cross infection at the Silka Seaview quarantine hotel in Yau Ma Tei, spread to several schools. The woman, who lives in Sham Shui Po, tested positive days after her three-week hotel quarantine had ended, bringing the virus into the community.

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