By The SUN
HA apologized over photo showing elderly patients sharing a ward with cadavers inside body bags
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| HA apologized over photo showing elderly patients sharing a ward with cadavers inside body bags |
Health authorities reported another drop in
new Covid-19 infections but the number of deaths continued to climb, with 196
new deaths being reported in the past 24 hours alone. Another 98 cases were
added to the tally as they were not reported on time earlier.
The total confirmed cases added up to 29,381, with those tested positive from PCR tests making up 18,888 while an additional 10,493 came from reported rapid test results. Reporters who attended the daily press briefing Friday persisted in asking questions about a leaked photo showing elderly patients sharing a hospital ward with what appeared to be a number of corpses in body bags.
Hospital Authority’s chief manager Dr Sara Ho
did not deny that what the photo showed was real, but said the incident
happened some weeks ago, when the Covid surge was raging out of control, and
the situation had been resolved.
She asked for understanding from the patients
and family members of the deceased, saying staff had been “under immense
pressure” because the fifth wave hit quickly and hard and was unprecedented in
its severity.
Ho declined to name the hospital concerned,
and just said the bodies of the deceased are no longer inside the wards as they
had been moved to refrigerated containers outside the hospitals.
She appealed to families to make the
necessary arrangements for claiming the bodies so the deceased could be laid to
rest.
Since the start of the fifth wave of infections the death toll had steadily risen, and now hovers around 300, with about a third of the cases not being reported on time.
Friday’s record tally was made up of 127
males and 69 females aged 24 to 107 years old. As before, a big number – or 113
– were residents in care homes.
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| A Covid doctor was shown in a viral video breaking down over work pressure |
An overwhelming number, or 148, did not
receive any vaccination, while 30 had one dose, 12 had two doses and one had
three doses.
The youngest fatality, a 24-year-old male,
had a hereditary disease and was living in a care home for the disabled. He was
taken to hospital after vomiting and had seizures. He tested positive on
admission and passed on shortly after.
There were five others who were all aged under
60, and all had chronic illnesses with some needing constant care.
They comprised 59 males and 39 females, aged
from 34 to 100 years old. No other background was given on the individual
cases.
As of Friday, a total of 3,231 patients have
died from the fifth wave which started on Dec 31, 2021. Nine of the deceased were
found infected during post-mortem while the rest all died in hospital.
The death toll from the pandemic overall stands
at 3,444.
Meanwhile, Dr Albert Au of the Centre for
Health Protection again said it appeared the fifth wave had peaked, judging
from the consistent drop in the daily infection figure.
But while there was no longer an exponential
increase in the number of cases, he said the daily tally of about 30,000 is
still worrying, as it indicated a lot of silent transmissions were still going
on.
He also pointed out that the infection rate
in places that had been put under restricted testing declarations or lockdowns
was between 10 to 20%, indicating widespread transmission.
He urged people to remain on guard, and
continue practicing social distancing.
Au also revealed that a study conducted by government
experts showed the same genome sequencing was found between imported hamsters
and humans who tested positive for the Delta variant, indicating cross-infection.
He said that among those who tested positive
in the fifth wave, 726 were found to carry Delta’s L452R strain. The variant has not been seen in
any of the cases in the past few days, indicating the spread has been contained.
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