Third Filipina Reportedly Quarantined with Employers
A third Filipina domestic helper has reportedly been taken to the quarantine center in Saikung, along with her employers and two wards, after the 70-year-old father of her male employer tested positive for novel coronavirus infection on Feb 9.
A spokesman for the Centre for Health Protection has declined to confirm the nationality of the maid, but some of her friends told The SUN she is a Filipina.
Consul General Raly Tejada said he was still checking the report.
In an earlier press release, the CHP said the maid, her employers and two wards, lived in a separate flat but on the same building as the patient in Ngau Chi Wan, Kowloon.
The maid and her employer’s family members were taken away from their flat in Choi Fung Court after the elderly man tested positive for the coronavirus at United Christian Hospital.
The CHP statement said the elderly patient had developed cough, chills and shortness of breath since Jan 30 and diarrhea since Feb 1. He consulted two private doctors but eventually went to the hospital when his symptoms persisted.
He is now in stable condition.
His medical information showed he did not travel outside Hong Kong during the incubation period and mainly stayed in his flat, or his son’s home in the same building.
The spokesman said that in line with health protocols, the patient’s close contacts who had been quarantined will be released after 14 days if they are found free of the virus.
Two other Filipina domestic workers had earlier been quarantined. The first, who lived in a flat in Ma On Shan where two elderly guests from Wuhan had tested positive for the virus, was discharged on Feb 7 without developing any symptoms.
The second was quarantined on Jan. 31 after her 39-year-old male employer was diagnosed with the disease, and subsequently died of heart failure. He was the first to die of the infection in Hong Kong, and the second outside of China.
The employer’s 72-year-old mother who lived in the same flat in Whampoa Garden in Hung Hom, also tested positive for the virus. The Filipina, however, was asymptomatic.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong confirmed its 50th patient today, a 51-year-old man, the colleague of a woman who attended a hotpot gathering in Kwun Tong linked to several infections.
Thirteen people who joined the family gathering on Jan 26 or came into contact with some of those present have now tested positive for the virus.
Nine of them were reported to have contracted the virus on Feb 9, the biggest cluster of cases reported in one day.
Meanwhile, the first coronavirus patient to have recovered from the disease was discharged from Princess Margaret Hospital today.
According to the Hospital Authority’s chief manager of patient safety and risk management, Dr Sara Ho, many of the coronavirus patients are in stable condition, with several more likely to be released soon.
Source: www.sunwebhk.com