People cross a street in Hong Kong on May 8, 2022. (DALE DE LA REY / AFP)
HONG KONG – Hong Kong reported 329 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday as health authorities investigated 14 new infections from the clusters linked to two bars in Central.
Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection, said in a news briefing that 35 of the new cases were imported, including 19 that were detected at the airport.
There were also no new deaths linked to COVID-19 but 10 patients remain in critical condition, said Gladys Kwan, chief manager (Clinical Effectiveness and Technology Management) of the Hospital Authority
She added 114 cases were confirmed through nucleic acid tests and 215 by rapid antigen tests.
Chuang also said that six travelers tested positive for the Omicron BA.2.12.1 subvariant at the airport while a man returning from the United Kingdom had the BA.5 subvariant.
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Chuang said the cluster at the Iron Fairies bar along Hollywood Road, Central had 10 more cases, bringing its total to 32. Four new infections were linked to the Zentral Club cluster, which now has 27 cases.
“There is still a hundred (patrons in each bar) which we have not yet identified. We will remind them to go to compulsory testing,” Chuang said, adding that the two bars had 700 patrons on the night May 21, when the infections spread.
“The outbreak has not been as serious as expected…We are not worried about a super outbreak,” she said.
Chuang added that the cluster at the McDonald’s branch in Taikoo Shing had one new suspected case.
While Tuesday’s figure was higher than the 275 cases reported on Monday, she said the pandemic situation in the city remained stable.
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“We see from the trend that it’s has pretty much stabilized but we will continue to monitor the figures,” Chuang said.
There were also no new deaths linked to COVID-19 but 10 patients remain in critical condition, Gladys Kwan, chief manager (Clinical Effectiveness and Technology Management) of the Hospital Authority, said at same briefing.
She added that eight patients were in serious condition while five were critical and in hospital intensive care units.
240,00 RAT kits
Meanwhile, the government will distribute about 240,000 sets of RAT test kits to people in some areas of the city as part of a follow-up on recent detection of the COVID-19 virus in sewage samples.
The test kits will be distributed to residents, cleaning workers, and property management staff working in the areas with positive sewage testing results showing relatively high viral loads, in order to help identify infected persons, it said.
The Environmental Protection Department and the Drainage Services Department have also strengthened the sampling of sewage in all districts of Hong Kong for COVID-19 virus testing.
With Xinhua inputs