- Pair live in Ming Kung Mansion in Taikoo Shing
- 54-year-old becomes city’s 57th confirmed case after testing positive at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital on Sunday
A husband and wife have been hospitalised after the 54-year-old man tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong to 57.
The pair, who live in Ming Kung Mansion in the Taikoo Shing residential complex in Quarry Bay, are being treated at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, in Chai Wan.
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, of the Centre for Health Protection, said the man first visited the hospital on February 10 after he developed a fever and cough. Lung scans showed no abnormality at the time, she said.
After the symptoms persisted, the man returned to the hospital on Saturday and was hospitalised. His wife was admitted on Sunday, after she developed a runny nose and a cough.
Although the man stopped going to work on February 7, Chuang said he had gone to a small "family style" church in Quarry Bay two days later.
"We will trace their close contacts and see how many people need to be quarantined," Chuang said.
The patient had not recently travelled outside the city.
Taikoo Shing Management Limited said it was told by the Department of Health on Sunday that a resident of Ming Kung Mansion " one of the complex's 61 residential towers " was confirmed to be infected with the virus.
There are more than 12,000 flats in the complex.
"The resident is currently quarantined in hospital for treatment," it said. "At present, we do not know the specific floor the resident lives on, only that it is in the high zone of the building."
The management said "intensive cleaning and thorough disinfection" would take place in communal areas of Ming Kung Mansion, including surfaces inside lifts and lobbies.
Meanwhile, the Hospital Authority said a 24-year-old man, who was the 27th person to be confirmed to have the disease in the city, was discharged on Sunday after he tested negative for the virus twice in 24 hours.
The man had been a part of a family cluster of 11 patients who shared a hotpot meal during Lunar New Year.
The authority said 103 people remained in isolation, including five patients with the virus that were in critical condition and two were in serious condition.
Also on Sunday, Secretary for Development Michael Wong Wai-lun said the Water Supplies Department had increased the amount of residual chlorine from 1 milligramme to 1.2 milligrammes per litre of drinking water to ensure its hygiene and cleanliness amid the epidemic.
As part of the treatment process, chlorine is added to drinking water to prevent bacterial growth.
"After increasing the amount of residual chlorine, it is still lower than the World Health Organisation's suggestion of equal to or lower than 5 milligrammes per litre (of drinking water)… it is suitable for safe drinking," Wong wrote in a blog post.
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