Two students from UK likely have mutated strain, HK tally 53

Customers eat in a fast food restaurant as a young girl wearing a face mask walks on the street outside in Hong Kong on Dec 8, 2020, two days before new measures, including a ban on evening restaurant dining, aimed at stemming a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections come into effect. - AFP

HONG KONG (China Daily/ANN): Two students who came back to Hong Kong from the United Kingdom likely contracted a mutated Covid-19 strain in Britain, a health official said as the city recorded 53 new virus cases on Wednesday (Dec 23).

In a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’ communicable disease branch, said one of the students is a 14-year-old boy who flew back with three friends on Dec 7 and is still being treated in a hospital.