People walk past lanterns for sale ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong on Sept 4, 2022. (BERTHA WANG / AFP)
HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s COVID-19 caseload exceeded 10,000 for the third straight day on Monday as a cluster was detected at the Siu Lam psychiatric hospital.
Albert Au Ka-wing, principal medical and health officer of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said in a press briefing that there were 10,021 new cases, including 152 imported infections. The territory reported 10,426 cases on Saturday and 10,683 infections yesterday.
Eight new deaths brought the city’s toll during the fifth wave of infections to 9,519 while cases linked to the Omicron subvariants BA.4 or BA.5 accounted for 67.9 percent of new infections, up from 64.4 percent on Sunday
“In the last five days, the number of infected cases were close to 10,000 or exceeded 10,000 in Hong Kong. We forecast that the trend will continue,” Au said.
Eight new deaths brought the city’s toll during the fifth wave of infections to 9,519 while cases linked to the Omicron subvariants BA.4 or BA.5 accounted for 67.9 percent of new infections, up from 64.4 percent on Sunday.
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Au urged members of the public of avoid inter-family gatherings during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.
“We are worried the public will have more public gatherings. During the Mid-Autumn, they still need to be vigilant and avoid inter-family meetings,” Au said.
Of the 152 imported infections, 66 were detected at the airport, 36 in quarantine hotels, and 50 in community testing centers. Twenty-four cases came from the Philippine and 23 from the United Kingdom. The rest were from 38 other countries.
Au said seven residential care homes for the elderly and persons with disabilities reported eight new cases.
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He added that 1,169 schools reported 2,864 students and 580 teaching staff members testing positive since Friday. Twelve schools had to suspend some in-person classes for one week due to infections.
Larry Lee Lap-yip, chief manager (Integrated Clinical Services) of the Hospital Authority, said in the same press briefing that the eight COVID patients who passed away included five men and three women aged 56 to 100 years old. Lee said the HA believed that four of them did not die due to COVID but to other fatal disease like terminal cancer.
Lee added that a patient care assistant tested positive on Saturday at the Siu Lam hospital and further tests showed that seven more patients and one staff member were also infected.
He also said that 2,915 COVID patients were being treated in public hospitals as of Monday, including 396 new patients.
Sixty-three patients were in critical condition, including 16 in intensive care units, while 60 were in serious condition.
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