HK Adds 56,827 Infections, Omicron Deaths Pass 1,000

Hong Kong on Thursday recorded 56,827 new reports of Covid infections - the highest daily count so far - as authorities said the cumulative death toll in the Omicron outbreak has surged past 1,000.

The Hospital Authority (HA) said 144 Covid patients died over the past day. Most of them were elderly and unvaccinated.

Forty-two others who died earlier were added to the official tally, bringing the total number of fatalities in the Omicron outbreak to 1,153.

The authority said among those who died in the past 24 hours was a 54-year-old man who was admitted to hospital with a fever and shortness of breath last week.

He required intensive care as the flow of blood to part of his lungs was blocked.

Dr Larry Lee of the HA said the patient had high blood pressure and diabetes, but his health condition was relatively better than other Covid patients who died and his case has been passed to the coroner's court.

The man had received one dose of coronavirus vaccine, Lee added.

Meanwhile, 78 Covid patients were critically ill on Thursday, with 116 others in a serious condition.

With public hospitals operating at capacity, Lee said the first private hospital had agreed to take Covid patients with mild or no symptoms.

The CUHK Medical Centre will reserve 24 beds for this purpose.

Meanwhile, Albert Lee from the Centre For Health Protection said officials are still working on setting up an online reporting platform for people to notify the authorities of positive results from self-administered Covid tests.

"Among patients who had positive results after taking our PCR tests, two-thirds of them had symptoms. This proportion is relatively high. We believe many patients with mild or no symptoms didn't do PCR tests but had tested positive in rapid antigen tests," he said.

"We expect when our reporting platform is launched, a lot of people...perhaps over 100,000 will register their positive results with us."