Public Urged Not To Panic As Covid Cases Rise

Health officials have urged people not to panic as the daily number of Covid infections rises, saying social distancing measures will be tightened if necessary.

They said the number of infections has jumped by more than 20 percent compared to last week, with more people being admitted to hospital.

Thursday saw 9,219 new infections and 13 deaths, compared to 7,985 cases and 11 deaths on Wednesday.

"This may be due to a number of factors such as increases in the local social activities, increases in the number of travellers resulting in an increasing number of imported cases and also there may be some waning immunity among especially those residential care home elderlies," said Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection.

She added that she expects the number of infections to keep rising in the near future.

The undersecretary for health, Libby Lee, advised people "not to feel frustrated or panic", adding that the BioNTech bivalent booster vaccine, which targets the Omicron variant, should be available for use in a few weeks.

Lee said the current Covid measures will remain in place for now, but they could be tightened if needs be.

"If the situation turns very, very bad, like the whole medical system is collapsed, patients with Covid or no Covid cannot access any medical services, at this juncture, of course we will need to tighten the social distancing measures," said Lee.

"Yet this is the last thing we would like to do."