By
The SUN
 |
| The latest daily tally is the lowest since record figures were reported in the first week of March |
The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Hong Kong dropped to 16,597 today, Saturday. It was the first time that the daily tally fell to below 20,000 since cases surged to unprecedented levels early this month.
But speaking at today’s press briefing, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection again warned of complacency, saying the spread of the virus remains severe and there may still be a lot of silent carriers in the community.
The additional cases took the city’s tally from the fifth wave of the pandemic to 1,020,910.
The death toll continues to cause concern, with 243 additional fatalities being reported today. Of the newly reported deaths, 182 were recorded yesterday, while there was a belated reporting of an additional 61 that happened between Mar 11 and 17.
Dr Chuang said there were 7,528 infections detected yesterday through PCR tests while the remaining 9,069 came from rapid antigen tests.
The day’s tally included 14 imported cases, of which all but one came from Indonesia. Eleven tested positive on arrival while two were found to carry the virus while in quarantine. Another lone passenger from Italy also tested positive while in quarantine.
According to the Hospital Authority, 10,624 patients were being treated at public hospitals and the infection treatment facility at AsiaWorld-Expo as of this morning. A total of 1,184 patients were discharged throughout the day.
Of those who are in hospital, 63 more patients were listed in critical condition and 119 in serious condition. The latest bulletin showed 115 patients were in intensive care.
Among the 182 people who were reported to have died in the past 24 hours, 103 were males and 79 were females, aged 30 to 109 years old.
Five fatalities were below 60 years old, including the youngest patient who was in a care home with a chronic glucose problem and psychiatric issues. The case has been referred to the coroner for further investigation.
The others all had chronic ailments like cancer, liver and heart problems.
Most – or 169 – of the fatalities received no vaccination or had just one dose of a vaccine, 20 had two doses while three had booster shots.
The additional 61 cases whose deaths were not reported earlier were made up of 43 males and 18 females aged from 51 to 99 years old.
The CHP has listed a total of 5,437 patients with Covid-19 who died in the Omicron outbreak, for a death rate of 0.5%. Of the fatalities, 27 died at home or outside a public hospital and were diagnosed during an autopsy.
Including those from the previous waves of the pandemic, the total death toll now stands at 5,650.
About 90% of all of those who died were unvaccinated or had only one dose of a vaccine. They were aged 11 months to 112 years old, with a median age of 85.
Meanwhile the Hospital
Authority has reported more patients being given either of two medicines that
experts say work very well in treating early-stage Covid-19.
Those prescribed Merck’s
Molnupiravir reached a total of 8,500 with 1,000 patients first receiving the
drug yesterday.
Those who were given
Pfizer’s Pavlovic rose to 1,000 after only two days of the drug being
administered to patients.
