The number of close contacts from a COVID-19 cluster linked to dance clubs in Hong Kong is lower than average, leading to fears that confirmed cases could be hiding their contact history.

As of Tuesday, 187 people who danced at various studios were confirmed to have COVID-19, which has become the city’s largest cluster of the virus. But as of Monday morning, only 457 close contacts were traced and sent to quarantine, following 187 new local cases since Nov. 18. This equated to 2.4 close contacts per patient on average, according to government figures.

Infectious disease specialist Dr Joseph Tsang said the number of close contacts reported by those infected by COVID-19 was lower than normal. Some of those who had tested positive were socially active, and they should have more than three close contacts including their family members, he said.

Tsang could not rule out that the Centre for Health Protection lacked the resources to effectively trace close contacts, or if people were hiding the identities of those they had been in contact with. Hong Kong may be forced to consider other means of contact tracing, such as implementing the mandatory use of the government contact tracing app, he said.

Dozens of socialites who have been infected with COVID-19 were found to be part of the dance cluster. Veteran investor and Asia Property Agency founder Raymond Tsoi announced that his wife had tested positive, without revealing if it was related to the dance cluster.

Tsoi’s domestic helper was also confirmed with the virus, and Tsoi himself was in self-quarantine and had taken a COVID-19 test, along with his two daughters.

Ivy Wu, wife of developer Hopewell chair Gordon Wu, has denied having any contact with cases from the dance cluster for a long period of time. She said she had followed government guidelines on the pandemic, and hoped all patients would recover soon.

Click here for Chinese version

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play