Growing cluster of Covid-19 infections tied to Hong Kong restaurant could delay launch of mainland China travel scheme

Woman who dined at Moon Palace where Omicron cluster has emerged is listed as suspected Covid-19 case

Cathay Pacific sacks two workers for flouting isolation orders, while another airline employee who stayed in two places during quarantine triggers lockdown orders

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Goverment health workers prepare to carry out Covid-19 testing at Tower 6 of Caribbean Coast Phase 2 in Tung Chung after a suspected Covid-19 case was tied to the complex. Photo: Edmond So

Published: 5:56pm, 1 Jan 2022Updated: 10:31am, 2 Jan 2022

An Omicron outbreak tied to a Hong Kong restaurant has grown after another patron was suspected to have contracted Covid-19 while dining there this week, triggering a lockdown and throwing into jeopardy the launch of the government’s quarantine-free travel scheme across the mainland China border.

As residents wearily crossed into their third year of living with the pandemic, the costly but effective defences keeping the virus largely at bay were now at risk of being overrun by the highly transmissible variant.

Nearly all of Hong Kong’s 95 Omicron infections have originated from overseas, but the city on Saturday confirmed its first local cases, involving two people who ate at the Moon Palace restaurant at the Festival Walk mall in Kowloon Tong.

Caribbean Coast in Tung Chung. Photo: Handout

Another diner, a 50-year-old woman, was listed as a preliminary-positive case, according to health authorities. All three are believed to have contracted the virus from a Cathay Pacific aircrew member infected with Omicron who visited the establishment, even though some were sitting fairly far apart.

While the outbreak tied to Moon Palace remains small, it posed enough of a health threat to possibly delay the launch of the travel scheme allowing residents to travel to Guangdong province without undergoing quarantine.