Anglers await a catch at a pier in Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong on July 14, 2022.
(YAN ZHAO / AFP)

HONG KONG – Hong Kong reported 3,762 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday as a cluster originated from a school bus taking pupils to a kindergarten in Kowloon Tong grew, health authorities said.

Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection, said in a news briefing that the new cases comprised 3,533 local infections and 229 imported ones.

A cluster of infections linked to a school bus of St. Catherine's International Kindergarten in Kowloon Tong grew as four more pupils and one teacher were confirmed infected

Forty-three of the imported cases came from the United Kingdom, 18 each from Singapore and Thailand, while 17 were from the United States, Chuang said.

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She also said 73 suspected BA.2.12.1 infections as well as 32 BA.4 or BA.5 infections were detected.

A cluster of infections linked to a school bus of St. Catherine's International Kindergarten in Kowloon Tong grew as four more pupils and one teacher were confirmed infected, Chuang said. The total number of patients involved in the cluster increased to 15, including six students, seven drivers and one bus nanny. 

Twenty pupils who took the same school bus are now under home quarantine, according to Chuang.

Sara Ho, Chief Manager (Patient Safety and Risk Management) of the Hospital Authority, said in the same briefing that one COVID-19 patient passed away on Friday. The 72-year-old man also suffered from cancer and other chronic diseases.

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“He was not a resident of care home and had no COVID-19 vaccination record,” Ho said.