Record Jump Sees HK Virus Tally Soar Past 500

Hong Kong recorded a daily high of 65 new Covid-19 patients on Friday, as the total tally hit 518.

Nineteen of the new cases are linked to a cluster involving nightlife spots in the city, with 10 members of staff and musicians who played in the bars coming down with the virus, as well as nine customers.

Forty-one of the new cases involve people who had recently returned to the SAR from overseas.

Health officials said the latest patients range in age from 12 to 71. Fourteen of them are students who have just come back to the city.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre For Health Protection said at her daily briefing on the emergency that some of the new patients have reported a loss of sense of smell and taste, as several others had done before them.

Chuang said more studies are needed, however, to ascertain whether this should be regarded as a symptom of the new coronavirus.

Officials also revealed that two members of staff at the Caritas Medical Centre have been placed in quarantine after they took blood from a patient who was subsequently confirmed to have the infection.

The patient, a 22-year-old policewoman, had not been wearing a face mask when the blood was taken. The officer did not heed a request to put a mask on, officials said.

A total of 338 people with the virus are currently being treated in hospital, with four of them in a critical condition.

Four Covid-19 patients in the city have died since the outbreak began in Wuhan last year before spreading across the globe.