'Covid Numbers Static But Outbreak Not Over Yet'

Health officials say the coronavirus outbreak has yet to be brought under control, although the number of new Covid-19 cases has been staying rather low for a few days.

The Centre for Health Protection’s Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan made the remarks as she reported 26 new cases on Saturday.

Among them, there are two imported cases – both are babies who flew in from India on August 14.

As for local infections, two more patients working at the Kwai Ching container terminal have been diagnosed with the virus, but Chuang said it looked like they were isolated cases unrelated to the previous cluster.

Seventeen of the local infections are linked to previous cases, and the rest could not be traced.

“The overall trend has been slowly decreasing, but I think it’s a bit static in the recent few days. We still have quite a number of unknown cases in the community,” Chuang told a daily press briefing.

“If the social distancing measures have been [relaxed], if there are more social activities, the numbers will likely rebound again,” she warned.

Chuang said this means there could still be invisible infection chains in the community, and the planned mass voluntary testing scheme will help to identify asymptomatic patients.

When asked about how some public doctors are reported to have advised people showing no symptoms not to get tested, Dr Lau Ka-hin, chief manager at the Hospital Authority, told reporters that the authority supports the universal testing scheme.

Meanwhile, one more elderly patient has died of Covid-19 – bringing the tally of coronavirus deaths in Hong Kong to 76.

The female patient was an 82-year-old resident of an elderly care home in Tai Wai that has had other confirmed cases.