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| The stricter rules for some new arrivals seem to have cut the number of travelers coming in with Covid-19 |
By The SUN
For the first time in several months, no imported case of
Covid-19 was reported in Hong Kong today, Aug.
26. All the 24 new positive cases were locally acquired, with 10 of them from
unknown source.
The development comes a month since the government required
all passengers coming from high-risk countries like India ,
Pakistan , the Philippines and the United
States , to submit a negative test result for Covid-19
before boarding their flights to Hong Kong .
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection said
at today’s press briefing that as in the past several days, the untraceable
cases made up about 30-40% of all cases. Those infected again came from all
sectors, including a retiree, family driver, construction worker and security
guard.
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These so-called silent transmissions in the community
brought on by asymptomatic carriers, is the reason given by the government and
health experts in urging all residents to join the universal testing which will
kick off on Sept 1, with about 5,000 civil servants helping out.
Of the 14 linked cases today, six are residents and one, a
staff member of a care home for people with intellectual disabilities in Lei
Muk Shue Estate, Kwai Chung. Dr Chuang said they are among 10 cases detected at
the care home so far.
About 50 staff of the care home have been put under
quarantine while the 40 or so residents were moved to the treatment facility at
AsiaWorld-Expo where they are being cared for.
There were also two new cases with unknown origin among
staff at Princess Margaret Hospital ,
as well as one from the Victoria
Harbour
But a 19-month-old baby boy and his mother who were found to
have developed antibodies, suggesting a prior infection, tested negative in the
PCR tests yesterday, so they were discharged from hospital.
Chuang said that despite the smaller number of cases, which
dipped to just nine on Monday, it is still too early to say that the third wave
of infections has been put under control, specially since there are still a lot
of silent carriers around.
“The daily numbers go up and down,” said Chuang. “From what
we have seen in the past few weeks, sometimes the figures are higher, and
sometimes the numbers are lower. We’re seeing a downward trend, even though
it’s still not at a very low level yet.”
Asked if the government is right in relaxing some of the gathering
restrictions from Friday, Chuang said, “We can’t impose social distancing
measures forever.”
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| The key to keeping the number of cases down is self-discipline, says Chuang |
She called on residents to continue taking precautionary
measures on their own, despite the slight relaxation in the gathering rules.
From Friday, all dine-ins will be allowed until 9pm, and
those exercising outside or are in country parks will be allowed to take off their
masks. Several specified establishments like beauty parlors and facilities for
no-contact sports like golf and tennis will also be opened up.
Dr. Sara Ho from the Hospital Authority announced that
as of today, a total of 4,161 patients have been discharged. One patient passed
away in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 78.
As of 9am today, 455 confirmed patients were being treated
in 19 public hospitals and the AWE community treatment facilities.
Among them, 27 are in critical condition, 34 are in serious condition, and 384
are in stable condition.
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