Covid Infection Rate Now Hitting 'worrying' Level

Health authorities said on Thursday that the rate of coronavirus infection in Hong Kong is climbing steadily and warned that the city was now starting to see a rebound in new Covid-19 cases.

Describing the situation as "worrying", the Director of Health, Constance Chan, said calculations by the University of Hong Kong have shown the reproduction rate of infected cases, known as the R value, has risen from below one to just above one. This means one infected person is potentially passing the virus to another person.

The viral load in some cases was quite high, indicating that the virus was spreading in the community, she said.

Chan said authorities are going to meet with those from the hotel industry to ask them to enforce social distancing guidelines to prevent patrons from holding parties in rooms.

She noted that many people were booking hotels for "staycations", that there were reports of people hosting parties in hotel rooms, and that the government's anti-epidemic measures may not be enough to reduce the risk of transmission in these places.

Authorities are studying whether a ban of gatherings of more than four people should apply to such events held in hotel rooms, she said.

Chan said the authorities will meet with the Tourism Commission and representatives of the hotel sector to discuss enhanced anti-epidemic measures.

"In places – whether public or private – it is important and more useful for each and everyone of us individually to observe personal hygiene, wearing masks, and social distancing, and proper hand sanitation," Chan said.

"After all, any law enforcement agency cannot every minute go into a place – whether a public place or a private place – to watch over whether people are behaving in a way that is conducive to the transmission of the disease."

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) on Thursday reported 18 new Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong, of which just four were imported and only one had no known source.

Eleven of the reported local cases are people linked to the Home of Treasure care home for disabled people in Kwai Chung, just one day after a resident was confirmed to have contracted the virus.

Authorities also said that another patron at the China Secret bar in Tsim Sha Tsui was a confirmed case, bringing the total number of cases in that cluster to 10.

The CHP's Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said a 65-year-old retiree who lives in North Point is the only patient with no known source of infection. He lives in Braemar Hill Mansions, and regularly visited Fitness First gyms in Causeway Bay and Wan Chai on weekdays.