Wuhan evacuee comes down with Covid-19

Wuhan evacuee comes down with Covid-19

Health officials said on Saturday that one of the more than 460 people who returned to Hong Kong from coronavirus-stricken Hubei province this week has been confirmed to have the illness.



But the woman, 38, was showing none of the symptoms of Covid-19, the Centre For Health Protection said at its daily briefing.



She flew back to Hong Kong on Thursday on the fourth evacuation flight organised by the SAR government and had been immediately taken along with the other evacuees to a housing estate in Fo Tan to be quarantined for 14 days.



Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Communicable Disease Branch at the Centre for Health Protection, said the risk to other people who had been on the flight was "very low".



"During their return, for the whole journey, all the infection control measures were in place to prevent any cross-infection. As far as I understand, the risk to other returnees will be very low," she said.



Meanwhile, the husband of a 69-year-old woman believed to have been infected with Covid-19 while on holiday in India has also been diagnosed with the virus.



Chuang said the man was asymptomatic and had mainly stayed at home recently, so not a lot of close contacts would need to be traced.



The latest confirmed infections bring the total number of cases in Hong Kong to 108, with an additional "probable" case.



Officials also said that authorities in South Korea had notified them them a man there who has tested positive for Covid-19 recently travelled on two Cathay Pacific flights.



The 22-year-old took flight CX288 from Frankfurt to Hong Kong on February 28, and then flight CX438 from Hong Kong to Incheon on February 29.



He had started to feel ill the day before he took his first flight, officials said.



They added that they would like anyone who took the two Cathay flights to contact them.