Hong Kong Evacuates Apartment Block, Fearing Repeat of SARS Tragedy

The Hong Kong government has evacuated the residents of a Kowloon apartment complex due to fears the novel coronavirus have been transmitted through its drain system, similar to a spate of deadly cases in the 2003 SARS outbreak.

Seven infections were logged as of Thursday in Flat D of Richland Gardens’ Block 6. In apartments vertically adjacent, the government told all 60 residents to go into off-site isolation and take coronavirus tests. All had done so as of Thursday evening, local media reported.

The residents share a plumbing system, a similar set-up to that of Amoy Gardens, where more than 300 people were infected with the coronavirus that causes SARS during the 2003 outbreak, with 42 subsequently dying of the disease. The World Health Organization blamed the bathroom drains for the spread of the disease between households. Studies have suggested that Covid-19 may be transmitted through fecal aerosols.

Yuen Kwok-yung, a prominent microbiologist and advisor to the local government on Covid-19 control and prevention, said that other Block 6 residents can still leave and enter the building, but said they should be tested multiple times over the coming weeks, practice social distancing measures and keep track of their contacts. Richland Gardens’ 22 blocks contain an average of over 250 apartments each.

The Department of Health on Thursday began testing another two clusters of apartments in Richland Gardens in which infections have been detected, after the Center for Health Protection declared Wednesday it would test anyone who has visited Blok 6 for more than two hours since mid-November.

Although the government announced Tuesday that the authorities would receive enhanced powers to impose partial lockdowns, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Center of Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said these powers would not prevent the kind of environmental transmission seen in Richland Gardens.

As of Thursday, Hong Kong had recorded 112 confirmed infections, with 102 locally transmitted and 24 untraceable cases.

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