Members of staff from the Home Affairs Department and the Sham Shui Po District Office distribute complimentary COVID-19 rapid testing kits to residents in Sham Shui Po district, Hong Kong, Jan 20, 2022. (PHOTO/HKSAR GOVERNMENT)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong government on Friday announced a five-day lockdown of a block at a Kwai Chung housing estate amid a major COVID-19 outbreak there as the city logged 24 new cases.

With more than 20 cases so far linked to Yat Kwai House in Kwai Chung Estate, residents of the public housing block will have to undergo daily testing and stay at home until Wednesday morning.

The worrying situation made the government and medical experts believe it was necessary and prudent to take immediate and decisive action, Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said at a news briefing in the evening.

The government will provide daily meals and necessities to residents of Yat Kwai House during the five-year quarantine

The government will provide daily meals and necessities to residents during the quarantine.

Chan said that the government hopes the measure can help officials find asymptomatic cases and cut off silent transmission chains as soon as possible.

She urged the around 2,700 residents of Yat Kwai House to cooperate with the government by staying at home and undergoing daily virus testing. She also called on employers not to dock salaries of those who are unable to work because of the lockdown and to be more understanding of the situation.

New cases at the block reported on Friday included a security guard, visitors and residents there. At least six of them were suspected Omicron infections, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said at a briefing on Friday afternoon.

So far, the infections involved residents of 12 floors and 13 units facing nine directions.

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One preliminary positive case involved a security guard of the estate and a cleaner who lives at the estate's Ying Kwai House. The cleaner was mainly responsible for emptying garbage bins at Yat Kwai House. A two-year-old kid who lives on the same floor as the cleaner was among the preliminary positive cases. 

"Ying Yat House will be subject to compulsory testing," said Chuang.

Apart from the Yat Kwai House cluster, another cluster that originated from pet shops also continued to grow, as the financial hub reported six imported cases and 18 new local infections Friday.

Five of the local cases were suspected to be Delta, including four customers of the Mong Kok or Causeway Bay stores of Little Boss pet shop or people linked to the cluster

Five of the local cases were suspected to be Delta, including four customers of the Mong Kok or Causeway Bay stores of Little Boss pet shop or people linked to the cluster. 

The fifth case involved a patron of Chinese restaurant Dragon Palace in Aberdeen. He ate there around the same time as an infected man, 73, who got the virus from his wife — also a customer of Causeway Bay's Little Boss shop. 

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The two men were seated quite far apart but both recalled using the restaurant's washroom. Health officials are investigating whether the transmission took place there.

Two of Friday's confirmed local cases were untraceable. They involved a 24-year-old man who lives in Cheung Yan House at Cheung Sha Wan Estate and a 37-year-old man who resides in Blook 1 of New Haven in Tsuen Wan. 

Chuang also reported one untraceable preliminary positive case that involved a construction worker who lives on Nam Cheong Street in Sham Shui Po. The authorities are looking into whether he got the virus from an infected Pakistani man who sold items on Nam Cheong Street.