HK locks down apartment block due to variant Covid-19 case

HONG KONG will quarantine residents of a roughly 400-unit apartment building for 21 days after a person was found with what the government called the first locally acquired case of a Covid-19 variant, escalating their use of what's become a controversial policy. The infected person was a 39-year-old domestic helper living in a building in the Caribbean Coast complex in the Tung Chung neighbourhood, the government said. A 10-month-old baby who lived with her was also infected, it said.

The building was locked down starting Thursday night. All residents were required to take Covid tests, and will be taken to serve their three-week quarantine in government centres even if they test negative.

Ronald Lam, controller of the government's Centre for Health Protection, said that the source of the person's infection remained unknown, and that preliminary test results showed the variant N501Y, which was first found in South Africa, and a mutation, E484K, which may help the pathogen resist vaccines and antibody treatments.

"Given it is the first locally infected case in the community involving mutant strains and it also transmitted to one of the family members, we think the situation is very grim," he said. "We have to conduct a series of measures for prevention and control."

The lockdown of an entire building could fuel frustration with Hong Kong's erratic Covid response, with business owners and residents alike angered by inconsistent and confusing measures, including the stopping and starting of in-person school classes and byzantine new rules for restaurants.

The city is working to incentivise vaccinations as its roll-out is hampered by distrust of the local government and concerns about the efficacy of Chinese vaccines. BLOOMBERG