In this picture taken on Jan 6, 2023, people visit a viewpoint overlooking Deep Bay and the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, in Hong Kong. (DALE DE LA REY / AFP)
HONG KONG – Health authorities of Hong Kong on Saturday reported registering 15,850 new coronavirus infections, which include 509 imported ones.
Seventy-two more people meanwhile succumbed to their infections at public hospitals, according to the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health.
Hong Kong has recorded 2,755,827 COVID-19 cases and 12,276 related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, including 12,063 deaths during the fifth wave.
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Total 2,293 of Saturday’s new cases tested positive by nucleic acid tests and the remaining 13,048 cases through rapid antigen tests (RATs), the CHP added.
The overall occupancy of medical beds in acute hospitals is around 113 percent, said the Hospital Authority said in a separate statement on Saturday.
As on Saturday, 4,893 patients testing positive for COVID-19 were hospitalized for treatment, it said. Among them were 479 new patients.
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Total 219 patients were in critical condition and 248 in serious condition, the statement added.
On Friday, the city logged 19,722 infections, while the number was 16,423 on Wednesday, 16,186 on Tuesday, and 20,230 the previous day.