New cases fall to 3 amid silent transmission fears

New cases fall to 3 amid silent transmission fears

Hong Kong has continued to see a sharp decline in new coronavirus cases, with just three people who returned from overseas making it to the list on Tuesday as the total number of cases reported in the city edged up to 1,012.



It was the third day in a row that the city posted a single-digit increase in newly confirmed cases, after seeing four new cases on Sunday and five on Monday.



"This is a good sign, but still we cannot be complacent; we still have to be vigilant to maintain personal and environmental hygiene and maintain social distancing," Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection told reporters at a daily press briefing.



"We never know if we have already picked up all the cases in the community. It is possible there are still some silent transmission in the community that we cannot pick up at the moment."



The new cases comprised of three males aged 16 to 53. They had recently arrived in Hong Kong from either the US or the UK, and include two students.



Health officials also said they will be liaising with authorities in Thailand after a man who tested positive there and was cleared after treatment tested positive again after returning to Hong Kong.



Chuang said that they were looking into the case of a 61-year-old man who was referred to in the briefing as an "overseas case".



The man had travelled to the US, Germany, and Italy, before arriving in Thailand where he tested positive for Covid-19. He had apparently fully-recovered from the virus and was allowed to board a plane to Hong Kong.



Chuang said: “I understand, from the information provided by the patient, that he had been tested negative on 11 April and was granted a medical certificate for air travel. So on arrival, because he was an overseas traveller, he saved a specimen for us to test.”



Chuang said that on his return, the man showed no symptoms, but that a test of his saliva came back positive.



She said that it was very unlikely that he was infected a second time, and it was possible that there were remnants of Covid-19 still in his body.



She added that the CHP was liaising with Thai officials to find out more about this case, and that for the time being, the man's infection would not be included in the total number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong.