By The SUN
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CHP's Dr Albert Au and Hospital Authority's Dr Sara Ho at the press briefing
Health authorities reported
523 new Covid-19 cases Saturday, down by about 50 from the day before.
Among the new cases, 252 were confirmed via
PCR tests, and 271 were reported by residents who tested themselves using rapid
test kits.
They took the city’s
total infection figure in the fifth wave of the pandemic to 1,188,800, with 9,023
related deaths.
For the first time since the Omicron
surge, the death toll dropped to single digit, with nine new fatalities
recorded. The patients were aged between 66 and 102 years old.
Thirteen of the new cases
were imported from countries such as Vietnam, South Korea and Singapore.
Dr Albert Au of the Centre
for Health Protection said he believed that the number of people returning to Hong Kong would
be capped due to the limited number of rooms in designated quarantine hotels.
From
May 1, even non-residents will be allowed to enter Hong Kong and will have to
fight with returning residents for the available hotel rooms.
Au
stressed the CHP’s top priority is to ensure all returnees test negative before
arrival, following the relaxation of border control measures.
Meanwhile
the Travel Industry Council has welcomed the government’s easing of travel
restrictions, which also include raising the threshold for invoking the flight
suspension mechanism.
But
TIC leaders said people will still stay away from Hong Kong as long as the seven-day
hotel quarantine for new arrivals remains in place.
Speaking
on a radio show, the council’s chairwoman Gianna Hsu said , “We don't think we can start our business to
overseas or any tourist is coming to Hong Kong... We hope that the government
will have the timetable and lift the quarantine policy as soon as possible."
The council suggested officials
could consider letting people quarantine at home again and to scrap the flight
suspension policy when the infection situation eases further.
