A man (left) sketches the Clock Tower in Hong Kong on Aug 14, 2022. (BERTHA WANG / AFP)
HONG KONG – Hong Kong reported 8,488 new COVID-19 cases on Monday as a cluster with nine cases was detected at the Prince of Wales Hospital.
Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection, said at a news briefing that the new cases comprised 8,252 local cases and 236 imported infections. Four COVID patients passed away, bringing the city’s toll during the fifth wave to 9,455.
Monday’s figure was lower than the 9,708 infections reported on Sunday but Chuang said it “may not reflect the actual trend”, which has been gradually rising in recent weeks.
Monday’s figure was lower than the 9,708 infections reported on Sunday but Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection, said it “may not reflect the actual trend”, which has been gradually rising in recent weeks
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“I think the number, which is a bit lower, may not reflect the actual trend because we do have day-to-day variation in the past,” she said.
Chuang said that cases linked to the Omicron subvariants BA.4 or BA.5 continued to increase and accounted for 54.8 percent of new cases as of Aug 26.
Of the 236 imported cases, 129 were confirmed at the airport. Twenty-five were from Thailand, 24 from the Philippines, 22 from India, 20 from the United States, 18 from Singapore, 13 from Australia, 12 from Vietnam and 11 from Canada.
Nine residential care homes had 21 new infections while 114 schools reported 205 cases involving 153 students and 53 teaching staff members. Seven schools have to suspend some face-to-face classes for one week due to cases.
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Lau Ka-hin, chief manager (quality and standards) of the Hospital Authority, said in the same briefing that the four COVID patients who passed away were all female aged 89 to 101 years old. Three of them were not fully vaccinated.
He said the cluster at Prince of Wales Hospital was detected after a 55-year-old male patient tested positive for the virus on Aug 11. Further tests showed that eight more male patients, aged 56 to 92 years old, were also infected.
Lau said the HA was investigating to see if the cases were linked, adding that the patients were in stable condition.
He also said that 2,556 patients were being treated in public hospitals as of Monday, including 52 in critical condition and 40 in serious condition. Seventeen of the critical patients were receiving intensive care.
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