HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong authorities are looking for a COVID-19-positive patient who escaped from one of the city’s largest hospitals while undergoing treatment, according to health officials.
The 63-year-old man, identified as patient 7379, was admitted to the isolation ward of Queen Elizabeth Hospital on December 14, after it was confirmed that he had COVID-19.
However, the man escaped from the hospital through a stairwell on Friday and could not be recaptured. In a statement from the hospital, the patient escaped wearing a jacket over the hospital clothes.
“The staff noticed that the man was running to the ward … the staff followed him, but the efforts were in vain,” said a hospital spokesman.
It is the first known case of a hospital escape of a patient with COVID-19.
Hong Kong has registered 7970 COVID-19 cases, according to a government website.
Two patients, aged 84 and 85, have died in the last two days, according to a statement from the hospital’s authorities published on Friday.
Scott Murdoch’s report to Hong Kong; Edited by Shri Navaratnam