Prosecutors told Kowloon City Court on Monday they were considering laying an additional charge of providing false information to immigration officers, based on the account that Rizvi gave early this month of his movements in April.

Rizvi, who was discharged from hospital in late April, wore a face shield and a mask during the hearing, and the court was told he was no longer considered infectious.

He was not represented by a lawyer when he appeared in the morning before Principal Magistrate Ada Yim Shun-yee, who remanded him in custody.

After arriving from Dubai on March 19, Rizvi completed his compulsory hotel quarantine on April 8. He tested positive in mid-April for the B.1.351 variant, which was first discovered in South Africa and is thought to be about 50 per cent more infectious than other variants in circulation.

Between April 9 and 16, while staying at a flat in Parkes Building, Jordan, he visited several locations in the area and neighbouring Tsim Sha Tsui, according to health authorities.

Officials also said he went to Citygate Outlets shopping centre and Novotel Citygate hotel in Tung Chung, visited a Discovery Bay restaurant, and attended an April 13 gathering with the woman’s relatives at Hing Wah II Estate in Chai Wan.

Under the existing charge, Rizvi is accused of knowingly providing false information to a health official on April 16 by only mentioning he had visited Tsim Sha Tsui and Jordan from April 10 to 11 and stating that he had not attended any gatherings.

He also allegedly told an immigration officer in early May that he had stayed in the Jordan flat for most of April 12 and 13, only leaving to go to a supermarket.

It was only later that he informed the immigration officer he had attended the Chai Wan gathering, prosecutors said.

Rizvi’s case was adjourned to May 31 to give prosecutors time to gather evidence such as CCTV footage from shops.

Authorities had questioned him when they were rushing to trace the infection sources of three foreign domestic workers who tested positive for variant infections.

They were only able to establish transmission links between the three domestic helpers and Rizvi and his female friend after the pair revealed they had been at the Chai Wan gathering.

Three participants in that gathering had subsequently joined another social event in a Sham Shui Po flat five days later with the three domestic helpers.

More than 2,000 residents of private housing estates where the three helpers lived – Caribbean Coast in Tung Chung, Royalton I in Pok Fu Lam and Kornhill in Quarry Bay – were sent to quarantine camps under some of the toughest local infection-control measures yet.

They were only released in batches beginning on Saturday after the government announced a relaxation of the policy.

Thousands of others who visited the locations the duo had been to, including Harbour City shopping centre in Tsim Sha Tsui and Citygate Outlets in Tung Chung, were also ordered to undergo mandatory Covid-19 testing.

Rizvi’s friend did not appear in court on Monday, with prosecutors explaining she had been admitted to a hospital with a fever.

Under the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance, anyone knowingly providing false or misleading information, including their whereabouts, contact with others or medical history, faces a HK$10,000 fine and up to six months in prison.

The infection cluster with the pair at the centre has grown to at least eight cases, according to health authorities. Officials first brought charges against the two on Saturday.