Hong Kong Announces Another Locally Acquired Coronavirus Case

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Although the numbers remain highly suspect, and likely significantly under reported, overnight China's NHC reported 3887 new coronavirus cases (3156 cases in Hubei Province),  65 deaths, and 262 people cured and released from hospitals over the past 24 hours.

Among the things we are watching, China reports a 15-fold higher death rate (476 out of 16,678 cases) in Hubei Province, than they do across the rest of China (14 of 7646 cases).

Whether this reflects the strained and overburdened healthcare system in Hubei, differences in testing and reporting outside of Hubei - or is simply a reporting delay caused by the long hospitalization-to-final-outcome  period with this virus - remains to be seen.

While many of the details of what is going on in China remains shrouded in mystery, in nearby Hong Hong, the flow of information is considerably freer. Yesterday, in Hong Kong Confirms 2 More Locally Acquired Coronavirus Infections, we saw details on HK's 3rd and 4th locally acquired infections.

Overnight Hong Kong announced their 5th locally acquired novel coronavirus case, with the following report posted on https://www.news.gov.hk/.

25-year-old man diagnosed with new pneumonia

February 5, 2020

The Centre for Health Protection announced that a 25-year-old man was confirmed to be infected with the new coronavirus and is now in stable condition. There have been 18 confirmed cases in Hong Kong so far.

The patient lived in No. 183 Ma Tau Wai Road, To Kwa Wan and was in good health. He developed a fever last month and cough, runny nose, and diarrhea the next day. He went to the Hong Kong Baptist Hospital for medical treatment the same day. He returned to the Baptist Hospital on February 3 and was referred to Prince of Wales Hospital for treatment.

According to the patient, he did not travel outside the incubation period. The patient's wife showed no symptoms and was sent to a quarantine center for quarantine.

The patient took a taxi from the Baptist Hospital to Prince of Wales Hospital at about 2 pm on February 3, and the protection center called on the taxi driver to call the center's hotline.

The Centre for Protection said that together with the two new cases announced yesterday afternoon, a total of 18 confirmed cases have been diagnosed in Hong Kong so far . The two cases involved a 64-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man.

The female patient lived at No. 1 Shan Shan Street, Kowloon, and was in good health. She had a cough since the 23rd of last month. She had consulted a private doctor. She had a fever on the 30th of last month and consulted another private doctor. She developed breathing difficulties on Saturday. She sought medical treatment at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and was admitted to hospital for treatment. She was transferred to Princess Margaret Hospital the day before. She is now in critical condition. According to the information provided by his son, the patient did not travel outside the incubation period.

The 60-year-old male patient has a long-term illness and lives in Yukang Court, Hong Tin Court, Lam Tin. He developed fever and muscle pain on the 22nd of last month, and had difficulty breathing since the 30th of last month. He sought medical treatment from the United Christian Hospital on the same day, and then went to Tseung Kwan O Hospital for treatment and admission. According to the patient, he did not travel outside the incubation period.

The Centre for Protection indicated that the three newly confirmed cases will be classified as local infection cases. The center strongly urges citizens to maintain personal and environmental hygiene at all times to prevent personal infection and prevent the spread of the virus in the community.

The protection center hotline 2125 1122 was extended to 12 midnight yesterday. As of early this morning, a total of 4,333 inquiries have been received.

The protection center also has a special webpage that provides relevant information and health advice. It is updated online at 9 am and 6 pm daily to receive the latest information on reported cases, further improving the efficiency of the distribution of infection cases.

As long as imported cases outside of Mainland China are limited in number, and can be identified and quickly isolated, the prospects for controlling the spread of 2019-nCoV are pretty good, even if some their close contacts become infected.

Far more worrisome are community acquired cases that show up without a known risk exposure, or a traceable chain of infection. 

So far, Hong Kong has only seen a handful of these cases, as has Singapore and Thailand. The challenge for public health officials will be to contain these small eruptions of local transmission before they become too big to stop.