HK Hit By Record Infections, New Hospital Cases

Health authorities have recorded the highest daily tally yet of coronavirus infections in Hong Kong, as they battle new cases at several public hospitals.

Officials reported 149 new cases on Thursday. Among them were 145 local infections. Eighty-four were linked to previous cases, while the source of infection in the other 61 were unknown.

The Hospital Authority (HA) said four patients who were being treated at general wards in three hospitals have tested preliminary positive.

Among them is a four-year-old boy, who's a patient at Caritas Medical Centre. Two other cases were reported at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, while the fourth was at North District Hospital.

A chief manager of the authority, Sara Ho, said more than a dozen close contacts of the four patients were being sent to quarantine camps as a precaution. She also said screening has been expanded to help detect those who have not displayed any symptoms.

"In order to minimise the possible transmission inside our medical wards, we have incrementally enhanced our surveillance programme in the HA, so we will screen those high-risk patients even though they are asymptomatic," Ho said.

Additional cases linked to existing clusters reported on Thursday include two workers at Sheung Shui slaughter, one more person who ate at Fulum restaurant in Tuen Mun, and another person from the Cornwall elderly home in Tuen Mun.

Two more taxi drivers also tested positive.

There were four new imported cases on Thursday, involving three sailors from India and a flight attendant from the Philippines.

In all, more than 70 others have tested positive for Covid-19 according to preliminary results.

Health officials at the daily coronavirus briefing were also grilled about the government U-turn over the dine-in ban at restaurants. The undersecretary for food and health, Chui Tak-yi, acknowledged problems with the policy, but stopped short of offering an apology.

"We realise the implementation and also the peripheral measures that may be necessary for this new measure may not be the best arrangement, so I think the proper way to respond now is to make adjustment to this new measure so that people who go to work and have to eat a meal outside will have a better choice," he said.

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