Health authorities of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) confirmed the first local, untraceable COVID-19 infection of the Alpha variant in the city on Saturday. The strain was initially identified in Britain.

The patient is a 17-year-old student without recent travel history, local media reported. Initial diagnosis showed her mother has also contracted the virus.  

Dr. Gilman Siu from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, who carried out the genome sequencing of the virus, warned that the strain could be highly contagious. 

It is the first untraceable infection reported in the region in over a month.

The HKSAR logged a total of 11,851 COVID-19 cases by the end of Friday.