Covid Cases Fall, But Holiday Cluster Fears Grow

Health officials on Friday urged Hong Kong people to guard against complacency, warning that each holiday gathering brought the risk of a "super spreader" event even as the SAR's daily Covid-19 infections fell to their lowest since November.

The SAR reported a total of 42 cases on New Year's Day, of which six were imported. Among the local cases were 13 with no clear source.

Meanwhile, one more patient from a United Christian Hospital ward tested positive, bringing the tally for a cluster there to 21 people. There were more than 30 preliminary positive cases as of Friday afternoon.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection says despite the dwindling number of new cases, people should not let down their guard.

"We are having quite a number of long weekends with quite some gatherings. As we mentioned, a lot of people crowded together outside, or inside at home, so we are quite a bit worried about whether numbers will go up again.

"If there is any superspreader who went to certain settings, there may be a huge spread," said Chuang. "We hope that the worst has been over, but still the numbers may rebound any time," she warned.

Asked about suggestions that authorities should extend contact tracing to include people who've been in contact with anyone who is a close contact of a patient, Chuang says this could be looked into. But she said expanding the scope of contact-tracing may not be very effective in reducing the number of untraceable infections.

She said life had been difficult in the past year as everyone fought against the virus, but added that hopefully with the emergence of vaccines, things will go back to normal soon.

However Chuang added that, at the end of the day, one of the most effective ways of curbing the virus is for people to observe social-distancing rules.