Hong Kong Logs Over 850 New Covid Infections

Health officials on Saturday reported 851 new Covid-19 infections - almost 180 more than the day before - with 74 of the cases being imported.

Among the newly logged cases, 360 were found through PCR tests, and the remaining 491 were rapid test positive cases later confirmed by laboratories.

There were no new Covid-related deaths for the day.

The Centre for Health Protection's Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said there had always been transmission chains in the community, and the rise in cases might be down to people going out more during weekends.

She said some pandemic indicators, such as Covid positive rates for sewage samples and overnight lockdowns, had slightly increased recently.

"Fortunately, we have not observed any increase so far in the [hospital] admission figures and the number of serious and death cases," Dr Chuang said at the daily Covid press conference.

"So we'll closely monitor the situation to see whether there's any increase in the burden on the health care system."

She said there were two more outbreaks - totalling just over 30 cases - linked to two bars in Central and Soho.

They are Racks City on Wyndham Street and the FLM bar on Jervois Street.

One of the patients who went to FLM had also been to the LINQ bar, where there had been another recent outbreak. Officials are trying to see whether the two outbreaks are related.