Hong Kong Only Records Three New Cases

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan briefs the media on the latest cases this afternoon

Hong Kong is doing well, but not out the woods yet, health experts warn as the city only reported three new coronavirus cases today.

There are now a total of 1,012 cases. Two are two students who came back from Britain and completed two weeks of home quarantine, but then fell ill with the virus.

One positive case is believed to be opera singer Warren Mok

The third case is believed to be well-known Hong Kong opera singer Warren Mok, 61, who had been to New York and Germany before flying to Thailand where he fell ill and checked into a hospital there. He was given a health certificate clearing him to travel and came back to Hong Kong with no symptoms, but his deep throat saliva test was positive.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection says they are contacting Thai health authorities to find out more about Mok's case and to decide if he should be counted as a confirmed case there or in Hong Kong.

In the meantime while she says the single-digit number of cases is "good", the public should still remain vigilant and maintain good hygiene and maintain social distancing.

A reporter asked when Hong Kong would be out of the clear, but Chuang would not give a definitive date, warning there could possibly be less testing during the Easter long weekend and more cases could pop up later. There was also the factor of how other countries were dealing with the pandemic that would affect Hong Kong as well.

It is advised to continue social distancing for now

Meanwhile two people from my office are still in hospital receiving treatment for the virus, one almost a month ago, the other for almost three weeks which is worrying. I don't know if they have underlying health conditions, but they are tested everyday for nose and throat swabs and both need to be negative; one tells me her throat tests keep coming back positive which must be very frustrating.

Tomorrow my colleague who used to hold yoga classes at lunchtime in the office once a week will be teaching virtually from his flat via Google Hangout! Should be a fun experience, and finally after several months we can do some decent stretching and work out some kinks in our bodies from sitting so long in front of our computers everyday.