Microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung is meeting press at 12.45am with CHP Director Dr Wong Ka-hing and deputy secretary for environment Tse Chi-wan.
Prof KY Yuen: Residents of block 7 of Hong Mei House in Cheung Hong Estate were evacuated tonight. The situation at the moment doesn't look like Amoy Garden in 2003 at all, because the U-shaped pipe's design is not problematic.
The evacuation was triggered by a leak found on the vent pipe that connects to the sewage pipe in the building. The leak exists in the toilet of a flat resided by a newly confirmed #nCoV2019 patient. She lives downstairs to patient no.12. Their confirmations are 10 days apart.
The units, both in block 7, resided by the two patients are about 10 floors apart said Prof KY Yuen. But the leak means that when the newer patient turned on the exhaust fan in her toilet, air in the sewage pipe (which links to the earlier case's flat) can go into the toilet.
Prof KY Yuen said it would be safest for all residents in block 7 to be evacuated immediately tonight because they couldn't finish inspecting all flats in the block tonight and they were no expert of pipes. Housing authority would sent engineers to examine all flats.
Residents of block 7 of Hong Mei House are sent to 4 quarantine camps and have to stay there until their flats are examined and cleared, and they themselves do not show any symptom. They will be sent to hospital should symptoms emerge.
Dr Wong Ka-hing of CHP just confirmed that the 4th quarantine camp is the Jao Tsung-i Academy in Mei Foo. They could not estimate how many days the pipe inspection will take and residents of Hong Mei will have to stay in camps.
The newly confirmed case is the 42nd confirmed case of Hong Kong, which means tonight the city confirmed 4 more cases.
She is 62yo, started coughing on 2/3 and was hospitalised on 2/9. She spent two days in Macau on 1/18-19. Her son and daughter-in-law are also hospitalised.
Hong Mei House is a Trident 2(Y2) public housing building and below is a standard floor plan for this type. These buildings usually have 35 storeys and each floor has 24 units, with 8 on each wing.
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#BREAKING HK top court ruled in favour of journalist @Baochoy’s appeal , quashing all her conviction and fines as the court found “there was no reason that bona fide investigative journalism … should be excluded from the phrase ‘other traffic and transport related purpose’.”
Choy was found guilty of “making false statement” 2 years ago for choosing the purpose of “other traffic and transport related matters” on the application form for car owner info from public registries controlled by the Transport Dept.
Choy’s search was for her award winning investigative report on #721YuenLongAttack in 2019. The application form then provided only 3 purposes for applicants after an amendment to remove the open-ended “other:” column in Oct 2019.
Tsui Hon-Kwong, veteran member of disbanded #HongKongAlliance - the group who hosted candlelight vigil for #June4 for three decades in HK, was taken away by police. He kept upholding his candle for #TiananmenMothers until police shut the door.
A man whose phone torch was on was taken away by police after a search. An officer snatched his phone as a group of officers escorted him into the search zone.
At a point people were lined up to wait for police search.
#BREAKING League of Social Democrats leader #ChanPoying was taken away minutes after she showed up with a small candle for #TiananmenMothers and two yellow flowers. She resisted and tried to uphold what she had in hands.
Heard LSD’s Chan Po-Ying said “why must police station? I don’t mind here.” before police bundled her into a police car.
Truck driver turned activist To Chi-kuen was taken away by police. He apparently carried nothing with him except wearing a tee that says “I don’t want to remember but I dare not to forget”.
#JUSTNOW This woman was taken away by police after a search. Not immediately clear what triggered the search. She upheld a small card with the Chinese characters “conscience” during the search. She wore a yellow mask, a black tee, a yellow skirt, and yellow socks with “Hong Kong”
“Going to a police station. Going to Wan Chai Police Station,” the woman shouted as police bundled her away.
A woman surnamed Cheung and in all black outfit was searched and let go by police. She told reporters police didn’t specify what made her suspicious and only checked her ID and bag. She took the search rather easy, “everyone knows what day is it today.”
#thread
On the protest-annulled Labour Day in HK, leftist party League of Social Democrats and the Women Workers Association would have small group petitions separately outside the government HQs to advocate for labour rights.
Before the 1st group LSD arrived , some 20-30 officers were seen deployed nearby with at least two holding a video camera to record the petition.
When Chan Po-ying, chairwoman of LSD arrived, an acting sergeant from the central police precinct read out an 8-point “reminder” to her. The points will be laid out in English translation from the next tweet.