By Daisy CL Mandap
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| The Omicron variant has proved to be deadliest in Hong Kong |
The coronavirus outbreak in
The newly reported infections took
But health officials say the real extent of the infection could be far more serious, as the confirmed reported cases only came from PCR test results, and did not include those from rapid antigen tests (RATs), which are used by a lot more people now.
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“We estimate that there are hundreds of thousands of patients tested with RAT but we cannot confirm them,” said Dr. Albert Au of the Centre for Health Protection at today’s press briefing.
Au said the platform through which RAT-positive patients could upload their information as well as those of their household contacts will be set up “in due course”. Previously, officials said it would be launched this week.
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The delay, said Au, is due to fear the system would crash from the volume of people who would rush to upload their RAT results.
“People with mild or no symptoms have not received PCR tests but have been tested positive with RAT so the traffic will be very high,” he said.
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He said CHP could not estimate the actual infection figure, but with the confirmed daily tally already breaching the 50-thousand mark, he said there is a big chance the positive results from RATs will be far more.
Adding to the grim picture was the record number of Covid-related deaths reported today.
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Hospital Authority’s Dr Larry Lee said 144 deaths were recorded on Wednesday, with an additional 43 that happened between Feb 24 and Mar 1 but were not reported on time.
The additional deaths pushed
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| Unvaccinated elderly people are high risk for serious Covid-19 infections, and death |
Some reports say the city, which has a population of only
7.4 million, now has the highest fatality rate per capita in the world,
surpassing even the worst daily figure posted in the
Lee said that an overwhelming majority of those who died yesterday were elderly and unvaccinated - a pattern that has emerged since the Omicron wave spread through Hong Kong.
Of the 144 who died, 85 were males and 59 were females, aged 42 to 102. Except for 10, all the patients were aged above 65 years old. Fifty-six of them came from residential care homes.
No vaccination records were found for 124 patients, while 10 patients had two doses of a vaccine; and 10 others, one jab each.
All but one of the eight casualties who were aged below 60 years old had chronic illnesses like cancer while one had a mental disability.
The only one who had no serious medical problem was a man
aged 54 who was rushed to
Although he had diabetes and high blood pressure, the man did not have serious health issues, said Lee, so his case has been passed on to the coroner for investigation.
Lee said that among the 6,698 Covid-19 patients being treated in public hospitals, 78 are in critical condition while 116 are seriously ill.
A total of 720 patients with mild or no symptoms have been admitted to the Penny’s Bay isolation facility.
With public hospitals operating at capacity, Lee said the HA has been talking with private hospitals to see if they would take in Covid patients with mild or no symptoms.
He said the CUHK Medical Centre has agreed to the proposal, and has reserved 24 beds for this purpose.
Meanwhile, Au dismissed a report that a new mutation of the Omicron variant was responsible for the deaths and serious side-effects on young children.
He said that so far, all the results of their tests showed
it is still the Omicron BA.2 strain that is still circulating in
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