Covid Cases Exceed 50,000 For A Third Day

Hong Kong on Friday reported 52,523 new coronavirus cases and 188 Covid-related deaths.

The daily infection figures exceeded the 50,000 mark for the third consecutive day, but the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said the outbreak had not peaked yet.

Albert Au of the CHP said there's still widespread transmission of the virus in the community.

More than 390,000 people had already been confirmed with Covid-19 in the latest Omicron outbreak.

The Hospital Authority (HA) said 136 Covid patients passed away over the past day.

One of them was a 29-year-old man who lived in a care home for people with disabilities.

He was admitted to hospital after developing a fever and shortness of breath last week.

The authority also announced another 52 deaths which occurred earlier.

Larry Lee, a chief manager of the HA, dismissed rumours that there's a shortage of oxygen supply at public hospitals, which are treating thousands of Covid patients.

"We have a significant increase in patients who need oxygen support in the hospital wards and emergency departments. I have to clarify that our central supply has no problem at all," he said.

"Our situation is we have some patients who are being cared in some areas without central supply so we have to provide oxygen for these patients in need with cylinder oxygen. We have some turnover hiccups about the cylinder oxygen,” he explained.

“Now we are working on it. We try to enhance the turnover with some logistics issues. We also aim at some repositioning of patients so that for the patients in need for the oxygen can access the central supply," Lee said.

Meanwhile, to speed up vaccination against Covid-19 among elderly residents at care homes, the CHP said people who had received the first Sinovac jab now only needed to wait for three weeks, instead of four, before they can take the second jab.

The interval between the two BioNTech doses remains at 21 days.

For care home residents who were unvaccinated and had contracted Covid-19, they could receive the BioNTech or Sinovac vaccine as soon as four weeks after they recovered – instead of three months after recovery.

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Hotline for Covid-positive patients: 1836 115