A top health expert says new analysis of recent coronavirus samples suggests that the current wave of Covid-19 infections was brought in from outside of Hong Kong, most likely by people exempted from mandatory quarantine.
The comments by Gabriel Leung, dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Hong Kong, go against the government’s position that the exemptions did not trigger the recent surge in infections.
…
“The current third wave seemed to have had multiple, new introductions that are unlinked to the previous local clusters,” he said.
He says that means the current wave of infections was most likely brought in from imported cases by someone who was exempt from having to go into quarantine for two weeks.
Exemptions were put in place for those whose activities are considered essential to the SAR, such as aircrew and seamen, cross-border drivers and certain business people.
