Health authorities on Saturday played down the possibility of a fresh outbreak at a secondary school in Southern District after a total of three students from the same class caught the coronavirus.

The school reported two more Covid infections from self-tests on Friday. Both were secondary one pupils.

Albert Au from the Centre for Health Protection said another student from the same class had earlier been infected as well, suggesting that the three cases might be linked, but he believed the transmission risk was low.

The remaining 30 classmates had been told to get tested over the weekend, he said.

"The initial investigation didn't identify any high-risk factors like mask-off activities or having meals in the classroom and so on, so the risks are manageable for the time being," Au said.

"However, we will monitor the situation when they are back on Monday. If there is emergence of new cases, there is a likelihood of on-site investigation to see whether there's a need for class suspension."

Au also noted that the Sheung Wan TamJai SamGor Mixian branch cluster has seen three more infections.

He said all three had visited the same training school, Benchmark, where another student, who didn't dine at the restaurant, also came down with the coronavirus.

The training school has recorded a total of 21 cases, involving 19 students and two staff, adding that one of the 20 environmental samples taken there came back positive for the virus.

In total, Hong Kong reported 228 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, including 16 that were imported.

There were no new Covid-related deaths.
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