The Centre for Health Protection on Monday said Hong Kong was seeing a “second wave” of Covid-19 infections as almost all the newly recorded cases were people who are believed to have been infected while they were outside the city.

All but one of the nine new cases which have been confirmed or preliminarily tested positive for the coronavirus, are "imported" cases, the officials said.

They include a 37-year-old man who visited the Netherlands, a 73-year-old man who joined a tour to Egypt, a 26-year-old woman who went skiing in Hokkaido, a 42-year-old woman who visited London, Germany and Austria, a 59-year-old man who visited Switzerland and Austria.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the centre’s communicable disease branch, said a 30-year-old foreigner who travelled to Hong Kong from West Africa via Dubai was also infected.

She said he had visited a mosque in Tsim Sha Tsui on Friday and was staying at a hotel in Chungking Mansions.

Later on Monday, Kowloon Mosque announced it'd been closed for the time being, after the visit by the man who tested positive for Covid-19.

Preliminary results show two women also tested positive for the virus, including a doctor who works at the Eastern Hospital.

The duo fell sick after going skiing in Vancouver. The Hospital Authority said the 41-year-old doctor did not go back to work after her holiday.

The only patient who didn’t travel outside Hong Kong is a 58-year-old driver. But Chuang said he was likely to be infected by his employer, who lives in a public housing estate in Fanling. He was confirmed with the infection on Sunday after returning from Hokkaido.

The new cases bring the total number of infections in Hong Kong to 157. Eighty-eight of them have been discharged, while four patients have died.
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Last updated: 2020-3-16 HKT 22:49