Outbreak Getting 'uncontrollable' With 123 New Cases

Health authorities said the situation in Hong Kong is heading towards an uncontrollable scenario as the city reported another record-breaking 123 new Covid-19 cases on Friday.

Out of the confirmed cases, 115 people got the virus from local transmission while another 100 people are listed as preliminary positive.

Of the local cases, the Centre for Health Protection said it was unable to trace the source of 53 of them while among those in hospital, 34 are in critical condition.

Talking about the record surge for the third consecutive day, the CHP’s Chuang Shuk-kwan said the cases now being identified were infected two weeks ago and they expect the numbers to continue rising.

"We are seeing more and more cases in these few days, so the trend is still increasing. Although this situation is reflecting those in the past one or two weeks, it is still worrying,” she said.

"We are seeing patients who have many social activities. That is difficult to track and difficult to put their close contacts under quarantine."

"The testing capacity, the quarantine facilities, as well as the hospital capacity are reaching the limit. So if this trend continues, it is very difficult for us to handle the situation,” she said.

Chuang said public cooperation is vital now and again appealed to the people of Hong Kong to stay at home as much as possible for the next one or two weeks.

“Reduce all social activities, avoid non-essential meetings, dining outside … this will help and we will try and reduce the trend,” she said.

More than 50 of the new patients were linked to previous cases. These include people who attended a banquet at a restaurant in Tuen Mun, customers who visited a Mong Kok restaurant where several cases had already been reported, as well as police officers and firefighters.