Hong Kong reports 2 cases of Omicron COVID-19 variant

HONG KONG, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) reported two additional cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on Monday.

The cases involved a 62-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman arriving in Hong Kong from Britain together on Dec. 10 and tested positive upon arrival at the Hong Kong International Airport.

Both patients had received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and had been asymptomatic. The whole genome sequencing confirmed that the cases carried the Omicron strain.

So far, seven cases involving Omicron have been detected in Hong Kong. As they were all detected at the Hong Kong International Airport restricted area or at a designated quarantine hotel, there has not been a spread of the Omicron variant in the community, said a spokesman for the CHP.

The CHP will adopt the most stringent prevention and control measures to prevent the mutant strain from entering the local community, the spokesman said.

Apart from the aforementioned cases, two of the omicron cases are related to South Africa, two cases are related to Nigeria and the remaining one is related to the United States.

The CHP also reported two additional imported cases of COVID-19 on Monday, taking the total tally of confirmed cases in the financial hub to 12,490.

One of the cases involved mutant strain while the mutation test result of the remaining case is pending. The patients comprise two males aged 50 and 75 respectively.

A total of 61 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 4.81 million people, or 71.5 percent of the eligible population, have taken at least one shot of the vaccine, while around 4.58 million, or 68.1 percent, are fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, a total of 266,453 people have taken the booster shot in Hong Kong as of 7:00 p.m. local time Sunday.

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