By Daisy CL Mandap
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| 18 people who visited LINQ bar in Central last Friday and Saturday have tested positive (Facebook photo) |
Eighteen Covid-19 cases have emerged from yet another bar in Central, health officials said during the regular press briefing on Thursday.
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection
identified the bar as LINQ on
One of the patients had also been to Iron Fairies bar, where an earlier outbreak has resulted in 51 people getting the virus so far.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Another cluster at a nearby bar, Zentral, saw 33 patrons getting infected. Two new cases were reported today in each of the two bars.
Chuang said officials are still investigating whether the outbreak in LINQ was related to the earlier bar clusters.
She warned of a possible rebound in cases as 489 new infections were reported today, 65 of them imported. They raised the total tally from the fifth wave of infections to more than 1.2 million so far.
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At the same time, she said many of the latest cases could be false positive, as about 2/3 of the daily tally were confirmed through self-reported rapid antigen test results.
Of the 489 new cases, 170 (which includes most of the imported cases) were confirmed through PCR tests and the remaining 319 from self-declared results from rapid tests.
Yesterday, CHP officials said they suspect the recent surge in cases may be due to recovered patients trying to report old RAT results so they could be exempt from the third dose requirement under the vaccine pass scheme.
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Chuang said today that of the 150 RAT results reported on Monday, 31 cases or about 21% were found to be negative after further tests, much higher than the 17% recorded a week ago.
She repeated the warning that those who submit false information to the Health Department could face up to six months in jail if prosecuted.
Despite this, she said authorities will continue to monitor the situation closely, especially during the long weekend which starts tomorrow.
She also reported two other outbreaks – the first one
involving a jazz dance class in Shek Kip Mei where six cases were reported, and
the second, at the
In all, 40 new cases were reported in 34 schools across the city.
Dr Gladys Kwan reported one Covid-related death, involving a 64-year-old woman who had been in hospital for a month because of other chronic illnesses. Her case raised the death toll to 9,167.
Kwan also said 397 patients are still confined in public hospitals and treatment facilities. They include 12 who are in critical condition, of whom seven are currently in intensive care. Seven others are in serious condition.
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| PADALA NA! |
