HK Reports More Than 58,000 New Coronavirus Cases

Health authorities on Wednesday reported 58,757 new coronavirus cases and 291 Covid-related deaths.

The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said 25,991 infections had been confirmed by PCR tests.

It said 32,766 people had notified the authorities that they had tested positive for Covid-19 in self-administered rapid antigen tests.

Dr Albert Au of the CHP said about 9,700 rapid tests came back positive on March 6 - the day before the online reporting platform was launched - and the figures recorded via the website should better reflect the real-time situation in the future.

The Hospital Authority (HA) said 195 people with Covid had died at public hospitals over the past day, and 95 deaths had occurred earlier but were yet to be announced.

The CHP said its forensic pathologist found that a woman who died earlier also carried the virus.

A chief manager of the HA, Dr Sara Ho, said all 1,500 beds at Queen Elizabeth Hospital will be used to treat Covid patients from March 13.