Pedestrians walk on a street in Hong Kong on March 31, 2021. (ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP)

HONG KONG – Hong Kong reported 14 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, including 12 imported infections, bringing the city’s tally to 11,718 cases.

In a press briefing, Albert Au, principal medical and health officer of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said the two local causes were untraceable while 30 others tested preliminarily positive.

There were 30 preliminary positive cases but these are being double-checked as their samples were all tested in one laboratory and on the same day. Nine of the 30 had tested negative after they were hospitalized

Au said one of the two untraceable cases involved a 19-year-old male checker at the Kwai Tsing container terminal who lives in Tuen Mun.

The other infection involved a 31-year-old female kindergarten teacher in Tseung Kwan O who taught about 30 students on April 20. The students were classified as close contacts and quarantined, Au said.

The teacher had also visited a friend’s home in Hang Hau, a restaurant in Causeway Bay, a wedding exhibition in Wan Chai and a yoga class in Kwun Tong, he added.

Au said that there were 30 preliminary positive cases but these are being double-checked as their samples were all tested in one laboratory and on the same day. Nine of the 30 patients had tested negative after they were hospitalized.

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“I have to say this is a bit unusual because there were 30 cases from the same lab and the same day. So, this is a bit strange,” Au said.

He said some of these cases might turn out to be false positives and health authorities were investigating.

Nine of the preliminarily positive cases came from Ramada Hong Kong Grand Hotel while 21 were from different community testing centers, Au said.    

“The 21 preliminary local cases all live in different buildings and districts like Tuen Mun, Wong Tai Sin, and so on. We don’t have any particular trend or relationship,” he added.

Au said that the 12 imported cases included eight patients from India, two from Nepal, and one each from Turkey and Pakistan.

Two cases from India and the cases from Turkey and Pakistan tested positive for the N501Y coronavirus variant, Au said.

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Meanwhile, Undersecretary for Food and Heath Chui Tak-yi said at the same briefing that the first designated flight for Hong Kong residents stranded in the United Kingdom arrived Thursday 291 passengers.

They all tested negative upon arrival and were taken to quarantine centers for the mandatory 21-day quarantine centers.

Chui assured the public that should anyone of them later test positive for the virus, the patient would be directly brought by government personnel in a government vehicle to the hospital to ensure that they do not pose any risk to the community.