Hong Kong shipping terminal hit by coronavirus, threatening movement of goods

[HONG KONG] Hong Kong reported 31 local coronavirus cases Monday while extending social distancing restrictions for another week as new clusters emerged, including one at a shipping terminal that could disrupt the movement of goods in and out of the city.

Eleven of the new local cases were of unknown origin, the health department said. The city's death toll stood at 69.

Infections linked to Kwai Tsing Container Terminals rose by two, bringing the cluster to 65 altogether. That could add to concerns about operations continuing at the facility, which last year handled 77 per cent of the city's 18.3 million twenty-foot equivalent unit port container throughput, according to government data.

New and growing clusters at the port and in settings such as dormitories for foreign workers suggest there is still a "considerably high" risk of an explosive community outbreak, the government said in a statement Monday as it extended social distancing measures. Although Hong Kong's worst outbreak ever has eased from its peak in mid-July, levels of infection are not yet showing a sustained drop.

"It is not yet the time for relaxation and there is no room for complacency in epidemic control," a spokesman for the Food and Health Bureau said in the statement, warning that the third wave of infections is declining much slower than the second, despite more stringent border and social-distancing controls.

Authorities are "still discussing what to do" with regard to operations at Kwai Tsing, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Center for Health Protection's communicable diseases department, said at a briefing Sunday. "Shutting down the whole terminal would be a big deal, as many foreign goods and products are from there," she said.

Ms Chuang said testing will be increased to cover as many as 8,000 workers at the terminal, where confined living conditions for more than 100 workers at Wang Kee Port Operation Services Ltd likely enabled high rates of transmission. "They eat, relax, shower inside, sleep over and live like a family," she said.

Modern Terminals Ltd, which manages Wang Kee's operations at the port, has received test kits for its 2,400 workers and sent those involved in loading and unloading at the facility to quarantine, RTHK reported. It has assigned relevant terminal work to another contractor, according to the report.

Modern Terminals and Wang Kee did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

BLOOMBERG