A worker taking the temperature of a passenger on a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Rome.
The couple, both retirees in their fifties, had no history of travel to the Chinese mainland but were admitted to hospital on Feb 4, three days after returning from a holiday in Italy.“After consultations with experts, we came to the conclusion that the most likely place of infection was on board the aircraft from Hong Kong to Europe where it was a confined space,” Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung told reporters late Thursday.
Hong Kong has 24 confirmed infections, including one death, and transmissions among locals who have not travelled to China recently are increasing. Also among the new infections was a woman in her forties who spent the Lunar New Year in Macau with three other family members.