Hong Kong reports 4th case of Omicron COVID-19 variant

HONG KONG, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) reported the fourth case of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 on Wednesday.

The 38-year-old male patient arrived in Hong Kong from Qatar on flight QR818 on Nov. 24 for transit. He remained in the airside of the restricted area due to a visa-related issue and tested positive in a pre-departure test on Nov. 27 at the restricted area in Hong Kong International Airport.

The patient has not received the COVID-19 vaccination and has been asymptomatic. He tested positive on Nov. 27 for antibody after admission. The whole-genome sequencing confirmed that the case carried the Omicron variant.

The first two Omicron cases were confirmed in Hong Kong on Nov. 25. Among the four existing cases, two cases are related to South Africa, and two cases are related to Nigeria.

The CHP also reported three new imported cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, taking the total tally of confirmed cases in the financial hub to 12,439.

One of the cases involved a mutant strain while the mutation test results of the remaining two cases are pending. The patients comprise three females, aged five to 61.

A total of 48 cases have been reported in the past 14 days and all were imported, according to the CHP.

Since the launch of the government inoculation program in late February, around 4.75 million people, or 70.6 percent of the eligible population, have taken at least one shot of the vaccine, while around 4.53 million, or 67.3 percent, are fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, a total of 166,458 people have taken the booster shot in Hong Kong as of 7:00 p.m. local time Tuesday.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government expects the third-dose vaccination to cover about 1.86 million people.