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| The Filipina flew from Manila to HK on Apr 8 |
A
Filipina who arrived from Manila two days ago is among the 16 new Covid-19
cases confirmed today, Apr 10, which raised Hong Kong’s total tally to 990.
The
38-year-old Filipina reportedly went to the Philippines for a vacation between
Mar 17 to Apr 8, when she flew back into Hong Kong. She was on mandatory home
quarantine and showed no symptoms when her test results returned a positive
result. She is now in isolation at North District Hospital.
All,
except one, case involved people with recent travel history.
The
only known locally acquired case is that of a 28-year-old man who was infected
after his girlfriend visited All Night Long Bar in Tsim Sha Tsui, which is tied
to a big cluster of cases. He lost his sense of taste and smell on Mar 28 and
is now confined in Tuen Mun Hospital.
Meanwhile,
the Consulate will close for three days next week, Apr 14 to 16, for cleaning
and disinfection, effectively extending its long holiday starting from
Thursday, Apr 9, for 10 days, or until Saturday, Apr 18.
 |
| The PCG advisory announcing the effective 10-day closure was posted on Apr 9 |
The
unexpected closure led to a number of Filipinos asking what would happen to
their passport appointments on the days the Consulate decided to close for
disinfection.
However,
the notice on the Consulate’s Facebook page says “all clients with confirmed
appointments will receive a notice regarding new appointment dates.”
But
there was no explanation why the disinfection is being carried out on what
should be working days for the Consulate, given that it was already closed down
for a week previously due to a string of holidays.
In
another development, Hong Kong health officials have warned against
complacency, as thousands of residents took advantage of good weather at the
start of a long Easter holiday to go to the beach and other popular gathering
places.
 |
| Many people were encouraged to leave their homes after a big dip in the number of new infections |
On
Thursday, many people heaved a sigh of relief after the number of new Covid-13 cases
dipped to a three-week low of 13, but the Centre for Health Protection’s Dr
Chuang Shuk-kwan said it was too early
to say the infection is on the decline.
“I observed that many
people are on the streets,” Chuang said. “If people relax their practice of
maintaining social-distancing rules, there may be a new wave of infections by
asymptomatic cases.”
Other health officials
are warning of the public health system being overloaded, given that the number
of infections each day is still more than the number of patients being
discharged from hospitals after recovering.
To underline this
problem, health authorities are now planning to send people in quarantine camps
home after 10 days, or four days earlier, to free up much-needed space. The
quarantine camps are said to be already 70 to 80 percent full.
On top of this, recovering
patients who no longer show symptoms are already being moved from isolation
rooms to isolation wards, to give way to new patients.
While
the number of coronavirus tests had dropped to between 2,000 to 3,000 a day
compared to a peak of 5,000, Chuang said the decline was due to fewer arrivals
and the number of suspected cases admitted to hospitals.
It
does not mean there could be no more local outbreaks because many of those who tested
positive recently are asymptomatic.
