Hong Kong’s health officials listed a residential building as an “epidemic center” on Thursday, and evacuated all residents living in the block over fears that the COVID-19 virus would spread through the structure’s pipe system.

It is the first time health authorities have exercised this measure since the COVID-19 pandemic began this year. The decision was made after University of Hong Kong microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung investigated Block 6 of Richland Gardens in Kowloon Bay on Thursday morning.

“We’ve concluded [after the inspection] that there is a safety risk for residents living in apartments of the same direction,” Yuen told the press. “We’re worried that if they stay here any longer, they will be in danger. This housing block is now an epidemic center.”

The evacuation order came as the city’s Centre for Health Protection said that 112 new COVID-19 cases had been recorded on Thursday, the third consecutive day that case numbers had reached three digits amid the city’s fourth outbreak wave.

Thursday’s urgent evacuation was also a stark reminder to people, including Yuen, of that during the 2003 SARS outbreak, when the government isolated Block E of the nearby Amoy Gardens, which is only several minutes’ walk from Richland Gardens, for 10 days after more than 100 people contracted the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus.

Yuen also pointed out that the situation at Richland Gardens was similar to Amoy Gardens, where all outlet pipes in an apartment, including from the kitchen and bathroom, are connected to the same sewage drain. There have been seven confirmed cases at Block 6 in Richland Gardens.

He recommended people add detergent to the toilet bowl before flushing or wear a mask when using the toilet to help prevent the germination of the virus, but added that the possibility of other forms of transmission could not yet be ruled out. He also threatened to deploy “harsher measures” if the Richland Gardens outbreak continued to worsen.

Meanwhile, Chuang Shuk Kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s Communicable Disease Branch also urged the public to avoid all gatherings as large-scale family gatherings had recently become a hotspot for infection.

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