HK's Virus Outbreak 'a Bit Out Of Control': Official

Health officials on Sunday urged people to stay at home and avoid gatherings as they announced another 38 confirmed coronavirus cases in Hong Kong, 30 of them locally acquired infections and the rest linked to overseas travel.

The Centre for Health Protection's Chuang Shuk-kwan said more taxi drivers have come down with the virus, and a cluster involving a Cha Chaan Teng in Jordan continues to grow. The source of infection for 13 of the new local cases has not been traced so far.

Chuang said the pandemic situation has "gone a bit out of control" and she is worried space will quickly run out in quarantine centres if the surge goes on.

In addition to the new confirmed cases, preliminary tests on more than 20 other people have come back positive, the doctor said.

Chuang said she doesn't expect the current outbreak to end anytime soon, being as the new cases are scattered across multiple districts.

She said people should stay at home and avoid gatherings to help slow down the rate of infection, warning there could be a major outbreak if people fail to keep up the preventative measures adopted earlier on in the pandemic.

With many of the new cases linked to East Kowloon, Chuang urged residents of the area to go to a doctor and ask for a Covid-19 test if they show any symptoms of the disease.

"While waiting for tests, do not go to gatherings and see friends," she advised.

On Saturday, Hong Kong had added 16 new patients to its tally of locally transmitted coronavirus infections, following a jump of 32 cases on Friday and 34 on Thursday.

In total, the SAR has recorded 1,469 infections. There have been seven deaths.