By The SUN
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| Officials are checking if an Omicron sub-variant had spread at McDonald's in Cityplaza |
The Centre for Health
Protection has warned that it is only a matter of time before the sixth wave of
Covid-19 infections hit Hong Kong.
CHP’s Dr Albert Au said there
is no specific indicator of the sixth wave but authorities will continue to
monitor the trend of the pandemic while keeping an eye on the number of new
hospital admissions, patients in intensive care and deaths.
He advised everyone to get
their next dose of a Covid vaccine as soon as possible as the antibodies will
decline over time, and the virus will continue to mutate.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Au reported 237 new Covid-19
cases, including three family members who had dined at a McDonald’s outlet in
Cityplaza, Tai Koo Shing at about the same time as a newly-arrived 64-year-old woman
who was found to carry the BA.2.12.1 sub-variant of Omicron.
He said the CHP was waiting
for the results of DNA analysis and sequencing to find out if the three family
members, a 41-year-old woman and two boys aged 8 and 9, who live in block C of
Mount Parker Lodge in Quarry Bay, also have the subvariant.
"There was an overlap of
more than 10 minutes between their visits... at the moment, we cannot confirm
if these three infections are linked to the 64-year-old woman," said Au.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
The woman had flown in from
the United States with her 65-year-old husband and stayed at the Lan Kwai Fong
hotel. They tested negative while in quarantine but were found infected with
the Omicron sub-variant when they went for their follow-up test on day 12 of
their arrival.
Tests carried out by CHP
showed the sub-variant found in the couple had the same genetic sequencing as
that found in a man and his son who had flown in from Nepal and stayed in the
same hotel at about the same time.
Of the newly reported cases,
25 involved patients who recently flew in from abroad. They included 13 who
were detected at the airport after flying in from the U.S., Singapore, India,
Canada, and German.
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Among the imported cases is a
46-year-old man who tested positive for Covid-19 at a community centre 12 days after
arriving from Singapore. He had three jabs of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Au said the man had a
relatively high viral load, but no other case was detected from the same hotel
where he stayed during quarantine.
Officials are now trying to
find out how he acquired the virus.
Among
the new local cases, three more were traced to Benchmark training centre in
Shueng Wan, raising the tally in the outbreak there to 24. The patients are two
students and one male staff member.
A
related cluster at the nearby Tam Jai Sam Gor Mixian on Queen's Road Central
also added one more case involving another student at Benchmark. There are now
nine patients in this cluster, and all except one are students at Benchmark.
Au
said a student at Benchmark has told investigators they were allowed to take
off their masks when talking in class.
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The overall tally from the fifth wave now stands at 1,197,765.
The
related death toll is steady at 9,157 as no new Covid-related death was
reported on Sunday.
But
of the 512 patients being treated in public hospitals and various treatment
facilities, nine are in critical condition and nine are in serious condition.
