By The SUN
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| The daily tally dropped despite a feared surge over the 3-day holiday (GovHK photo) |
Health officials reported
7,938 new Covid-19 infections on Monday, including 166 that were imported.
But 11 more patients died on
Sunday, aged from 61 to 93 years old. Only one had triple vaccine doses, and five
were unvaccinated.
The total number of patients
receiving treatment at public hospitals remained fairly steady at 2,753.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
However, the number of
patients in critical condition went up to 56, with four new patients being
admitted in this condition. Among them, 14 are in intensive care.
Those listed as seriously ill
surged to 65, after 15 new patients in this condition were admitted overnight.
Among those receiving
intensive care is a 10-year-old boy who suffers from epilepsy. He received two
vaccine doses.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Echoing her statement
yesterday, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection said the
daily tally seems to be on the way down but wanted against complacency.
“It is true that in the past
few days, it appears that the figures have stabilised and come down, but we
still have to monitor closely. We don’t yet know whether it has to do with the
[public] holiday and whether there will be a rebound afterwards,” she said.
Chuang also said they needed
to look into whether the now dominant Omicron variant, BA.5 has peaked. Currently
it accounts for 68 percent of the cases, but experts say its share must go up
to at least 80 percent before the outbreak could ease.
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Meanwhile, an infectious
disease expert from the University of Hong Kong has called for the scrapping of
compulsory testing for residents in buildings where the sewage tests positive
for the virus or Covid patients are found.
Dr Ho Pak-leung pointed out
that Covid patients are now allowed to isolate at home for a week, which would
naturally mean positive sewage samples would be found in the buildings where
they live.
Thus, it would be illogical
to issue CTNs for residents of those buildings as it would contradict the
policy that allows home isolation.
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| BASAHIN ANG DETALYE |
Ho also said this runs
contrary to Hong Kong’s overall strategy of shifting from cutting transmission
chains to preventing serious illnesses and hospitalization.
Chuang said the government
will consider experts’ views and make changes if necessary.
Of the 166 imported cases, 72
were detected at the airport, 50 during the three-day hotel quarantine, 40
between days 4 and 7, and four after, likely re-positive cases.
The infected travelers came
from 40 countries, and the following had more than 10 cases each: United Kingdom,
20; United States, 23; the Philippines, 19; and Thailand, 11.
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PADALA NA!
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