China News Service, Hong Kong, December 1 (Suo Youwei, Wei Huadu) Hong Kong has newly confirmed 3 new cases of new coronary pneumonia on December 1, all of which are imported cases.
In addition, another imported case was confirmed to involve the Omi Keron mutant virus strain.
On the same day, the University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong University) team, which successfully isolated and cultivated the Omi Keron mutant virus strain from clinical specimens, stated that it would continue to study the toxicity and transmission of the virus, and the isolated virus strain will be used for development and production of inactivated whole Virus vaccine.
The Centre for Health Protection (Center) of the Department of Health of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government stated that as of 0:00 on December 1, Hong Kong had added 3 more imported cases. ) Arrived in Hong Kong, one of whom was a close contact of the earlier imported case, one was tested for the virus at the Hong Kong International Airport upon arrival and the result was positive, and the other was diagnosed during the quarantine period.
So far, the total number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong has increased to 12,439.
Data map: Previously, a confirmed imported case of new coronary pneumonia had visited the Gateway Hotel in Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui.
Photo by Li Zhihua
The center also found that an imported case confirmed earlier involved the Omi Keron mutant virus strain.
The case involved a 38-year-old male patient who flew from Qatar to Hong Kong on November 24 to wait for a transfer. He stayed in the restricted area of the airport due to visa-related issues and proceeded before departure in the restricted area of Hong Kong International Airport on November 27. The result of the test was positive. He had no symptoms and was not vaccinated with the new crown vaccine, and was subsequently admitted to the hospital.
According to the whole-genome sequencing analysis results of the Public Health Laboratory Service of the Department of Health, it was confirmed that he had the Omi Keron mutant virus strain.
Further epidemiological investigation revealed that he had travelled from Papua New Guinea to Nigeria on November 15 and then from Qatar to Hong Kong.
So far, a total of 4 imported cases in Hong Kong have involved Omi Keron mutant virus strains, of which 2 are related to South Africa and 2 are related to Nigeria.
In addition, the University of Hong Kong announced on November 30 that it had successfully isolated and cultivated the Ome Keron mutant virus strain from clinical specimens.
Yuan Guoyong, the chair professor of the Department of Microbiology of the University of Hong Kong, who is in charge of this research, said through a video conference on December 1 that the team will continue to study the toxicity and transmission of Ome Keron, and study the diseases that have been infected, vaccinated or injected with different types of vaccines in Hong Kong. People, whether the neutralizing antibodies in their bodies are enough to neutralize the Ome Keron mutant virus.
At the same time, the isolated virus strains will be used to develop and produce inactivated whole virus vaccines.
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