The patient carrying the Omicron variant is a 21-year-old woman. She arrived in Hong Kong from the US on flight CX845 on Sunday (Dec 12) and tested positive at the airport. She had received two doses of the BioNTech vaccine in the US on May 12 and June 2.

She developed symptoms last Saturday (Dec 11). The Ct value for the test after admission on Sunday was less than 30 and she tested positive for antibodies. Her case was reported as an imported case yesterday (Tuesday) before detecting the Omicron variant.

As for the imported case reported today, it involved a 46-year-old man arriving from Germany on Monday on flight LH796. He had received two doses of BioNTech vaccine in Hong Kong on April 25 and May 16. He remains asymptomatic.

The Center for Health Protection said there are so far nine cases involving the Omicron variant in Hong Kong, and all were detected at the airport or designated quarantine facilities. The center there has not been any spread in the community.

A total of 59 cases have been reported in the past 14 days and all of them are imported cases. Hong Kong's Covid tally now stands at 12,497.