Covid cases drop below 300 but CTNs, lockdowns continue

By The SUN

 

Residents issued with a CTN queue up outside a community testing centre in Quarry Bay

Health authorities reported 283 new Covid infections on Monday, the lowest number recorded in nearly three months.

Among these cases, 120 were detected through PCR tests while the rest were reported by people who did rapid self-tests.

Despite an earlier warning that imported cases may rise after Hong Kong was opened to tourists starting yesterday, the number of travelers who were found infected had dropped to 11.  

Eight of the cases were detected through PCR tests while three tested positive on rapid antigen tests.

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Dr Albert Au of the Centre for Health Protection said among those who tested positive by PCR test was a 45-year-old man who was found infected 12 days after flying in from Thailand.

Au said the patient tested negative for Covid on arrival and during his hotel quarantine, but a test he had a community testing centre on May 1 came back negative.

"We can't say whether it is a local or imported case yet. But it could be a local case, as his RAT results have all along been negative, until it was positive on May 1,” he said.

But because the positive result came within the 14-day quarantine period, his case is being classified as imported initially, pending genome analysis.

Meanwhile, Dr Larry Lee of the Hospital Authority reported five additional Covid-related deaths, including three reported on Sunday. They took the death toll from the Omicron outbreak to 9,318.

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Separately, the government issued compulsory testing notices for 40 more places across the city.

Covered by the CTNs are buildings located in Lam Tin, Ngau Tau Kok, Chai Wan, Tai Po, Sham Shui Po, Mong Kok, Hung Hom, San Po Kong, Lai Chi Kok, Shek Tong Tsui, Sheung Shui, Tin Shui Wai, Tuen Mun, Ma On Shan, Tseung Kwan O, Tsuen Wan, Kwun Tong, Cheung Sha Wan, Quarry Bay, Aberdeen, Tsing Yi, Yuen Long, Kwai Chung, Happy Valley, Sha Tin and Kowloon Bay.

Anyone who has lived or visited any of these places for at least two hours from Apr 26 to May 2 must get a PCR test.

The cluster notices are being issued daily, 40 buildings at a time, since the Omicron outbreak began to ease last month.

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At the same time, residents of the following buildings have been urged to undergo rapid antigen tests after the sewage samples from the premises tested positive for the virus with a high viral load:

·       Tuen Mun District – Chelsea Heights

·       Kowloon City District – Residential premises around Tam Kung Road and Shing Tak Street (See Annex)

·       Sai Kung District – King Ming Court, Well On Garden, Finery Park, Radiant Towers and Po Lam Estate

·       Sham Shui Po District – Dynasty Heights and Beacon Heights

·       Tsuen Wan District – Bayview Garden, Serenade Cove, Phase 1 – 3 of Belvedere Garden and Greenview Court

·       Yau Tsim Mong District – Man Cheong Building, Man King Building, Man Yiu Building, Man Yuen Building, Man Ying Building, Man Wah Building, Man Wai Building, Man Fai Building, Chungking Mansions, Hankow Centre, Tsim Sha Tsui Mansion, Far East Mansion, Mirador Mansion, Hai Phong Mansion and Harilela Mansion

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At least one residential building was put under “restriction testing declaration” or lockdown overnight - Block 4, Serenity Place in Tseung Kwan O.

All residents in the building were told to remain in their houses and undergo compulsory testing. The order will be lifted early today, when everyone in the restricted area has undergone testing and the results are obtained.

On Sunday, a lockdown was also ordered on all residents of Wing Shing House, Fung Shing Court in Sha Tin.

Out of 1,439 persons who had undergone testing, two tested positive and were referred to the CHP for follow-up action.

 

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Pinakamalamig na araw ng Mayo simula noong 1917, naitala kanina

 by The SUN

Kasabay ng biglang paglamig ay ang maghapong ulan kahapon at kaninang umaga

Itinala kaninang umaga (May 2) ang pinakamalamig na araw sa buwan ng Mayo simula pa noong 1917, ayon sa Hong Kong Observatory (HKO).

Bumagsak sa 16.4 degrees Celsius ang temperatura kaninang umaga, na ikinagulat ng mga weather forecaster, dahil ang pinakamababang inaasahan nila ayon sa forecast ng kanilang computer ay 19 degrees celsius.

Dahil dito ay dinagdagan nila ang datos ng kanilang Weather Model Ensemble Forecasting System, upang maging mas eksakto ang pagtataya nito ng panahon sa hinaharap.

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Ang dahilan ng biglang paglamig, kahit ngayong pumasok na ang summer sa Hong Kong, ay ang northeast monsoon (na kilala bilang hanging amihan sa Pilipinas) na pabugso-bugsong umiihip mula sa hilagang silangan ng China.

Karaniwan itong bumababa sa Hong Kong mula Nobyembre hanggang Pebrero, at humuhupa pagdating ng spring season.

Bumalik ang malamig na hangin sa Hong Kong noong Linggo (May 1), na may dalang ulan, at nanatili hanggang kanina.

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May malaking epekto ito sa Labor Day holiday ay lingguhang day off ng mga OFW sa Hong Kong.

Marami ang inabutan ng ulan habang nasa pasyalan nila sa Central o papuntang simbahan, at habang nakapila sa Bayanihan Center Kennedy Town uoang bumoto sa ginaganap ngayong halalan.

Pero ayon sa Observatory, babalik na ulit ang tag-araw bukas ng hapon, at magkakaron ng magandang panahon ang Hong Kong sa susunod na linggo.

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Katunayan, nagssimula nang tumaas ang temperatura sa iba’t ibang panig ng Hong Kong ngayong gabi, dahil nakaalis na ang malamig na hangin.

Ilan sa mga lugar na nagreport ng kanilang kalagayan ngayong 10 ng gabi: Wong Chuk Hang, 20 degrees; Tai Po20 degrees; Sha Tin, 20 degrees; Tuen Mun, 19 degrees; Tseung Kwan O, 19 degrees; Sai Kung, 20 degrees; Chek Lap Kok, 20 degrees; Tsing Yi, 21 degrees; Tsuen Wan Shing Mun Valley, 19 degrees; Hong Kong Park, 19 degrees; Shau Kei Wan19 degrees; Kowloon City, 19 degrees; Happy Valley, 21 degrees; at Yuen Long Park,19 degrees.

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Inaahasan din na magiging mainit tuwing hapon simula bukas, mula sa 24 degrees celsius bukas hanggang 30 degrees Celsius sa Huwebes.

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OV tally surpasses 2016 turnout as more than 3.8k people voted today

By Daisy CL Mandap

 

A steady stream of voters head to Bayanihan despite the rain

More than 3,800 Filipinos showed up at the Bayanihan Centre today to cast their ballots, pushing the total tally past the turnout recorded in the last presidential election in 2016 – with exactly a week to go in the ongoing Overseas Voting.

According to Consul General Raly Tejada, the 23-day total in the ongoing election is “approximately 48,300” (The Commission on Elections forbids overseas posts from giving exact figures).

“We have already surpassed 2016!,” Congen Tejada exclaimed, obviously elated.

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He had said previously that he was hoping the total turnout would at least hit 50,000, a figure that is definitely within reach at this stage.

In the last general election six years ago, 46,396 out of the 93,978 registered voters had cast their votes, amounting to a 49% turnout.

With a slightly smaller registration figure of 93,265, the current turnout is already at 51.7%.

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There are indications the number could jump further, as some religious groups whose members are usually bused to Bayanihan to cast their ballots at the same time, have yet to make this move.

There are also a number of people whose names were not included in the Certified List of Overseas Voters even if they have receipts showing they had listed up during the two-year registration period which ended in October last year.

Among them is Liezel Lao, who was among those who lined up for hours on the first day of voting on April 10, only to be told by the OV Secretariat that she could not vote as her name was not in the CLOV.

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Lao has been following up on her case since, and is now worried she may end up being disenfranchised because her only remaining day off is on May 8, the day before the OV ends.

Told about her case, Congen Tejada said the Secretariat would follow up with Comelec immediately as only the polling body can authorize a voter’s inclusion in the CLOV.

He hopes Comelec would act quickly on this and similar cases as there is only a week to go before the polls close on May 9.

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The last day of the OV coincides with the day when all of the 67 million registered voters in the Philippines go to polling stations across the country to cast their votes.

Filipinos voting overseas get to elect a president, vice president, a maximum of 12 senators, and one party-list. Those in the Philippines are also able to vote for local officials, including the members of Congress.

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CHP warns of rise in imported cases as tourists start coming into HK

By The SUN

 

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan and Dr Lau Ka-hin give an update on the Covid situation

Health officials have reported 300 new Covid infections Sunday, a drop of about 60 from the previous day. They raised the total infection tally from the Omicron outbreak to 1.191 million.

Among them are 22 imported cases, and the Centre for Health Protection warned the number could go up after Hong Kong’s borders were opened to tourists.

CHP’s Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said, "There would maybe [be] an increasing number of imported cases because of the increasing number of flights or passengers to Hong Kong," she said.

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The imported cases include 14 passengers who arrived on Saturday and tested positive at the airport. One came via flight CX2819 and three on flight CX865 from Vancouver, one on CX881 from Los Angeles, two on SQ882 and five on SQ894 from Singapore, two on AI316 from Indonesia.

Under the relaxed flight suspension rules that took effect Sunday, at least one - flight SQ894 from Singapore - should have been suspended from flying in for five days, but the CHP did not make any such announcement.

The new rules raised the threshold for invoking the flight suspension – at least five passengers testing positive on arrival instead of the previous three – and cut the period of suspension from seven to five days.

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Chuang said the city has so far detected 12 cases with Omicron sub-variants - two BA.5 variants, five BA.2.12.1, and five BA.2.12 cases.

She said the CHP had not seen any notable clinical symptoms from the infected patients, indicating the new Omicron strains may not be more severe or infectious than was previously feared.

But she said the CHP will continue to monitor any related announcements from the World Health Organization.

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Meanwhile, Hospital Authority’s Dr Lau Ka-hin reported five more Covid-related deaths, including a 53-year-old woman who had a brain hemorrhage after fainting and bumping her head at home.

Lau said the woman, who had diabetes, was first taken to United Christian Hospital where a brain scan showed the bleeding in her brain. She was transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital where she tested positive for Covid with a low viral load.

Her situation deteriorated until she died on Saturday.

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The number of fatalities from the Omicron outbreak has now gone up to 9,100 with the death rate at 0.76 percent.  

Separately, Lau announced that services at general out-patient clinics will partly resume as the pandemic continues to ease.

He said services will first resume in the evenings and on weekends, before the clinics that had been turned into designated Covid clinics are gradually converted back to providing general outpatient services.

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Lau said the designated Covid clinics have served more than 120,000 patients to date, including 1,700 high-risk patients.

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OV turnout set to eclipse 2016 tally as 3.4k people voted despite rain

By Daisy CL Mandap 

Rainy May Day saw a steady stream of voters heading to Bayanihan

Despite heavy rains that lasted through the day, about 3,400 Filipinos turned up to vote at Bayanihan Centre in Kennedy Town on Sunday, pushing the turnout in the month-long Overseas Voting so far to more than 44,400.

That’s just about 2,000 fewer than the 46,396 votes cast in the last presidential election in 2016, which amounted to 49% of the 93,978 registered voters.

Poll watchers said a queue had formed outside Bayanihan when voting started at 8am, but disappeared only after about two hours. Still, a steady stream of voters ensured the Sunday tally did not fall below expectation.

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On Saturday, an additional 1,200 votes were cast.

Consul General Raly Tejada said, “Hope we could push past 50,000 soon.”

Getting past the total voters’ tally in the hotly contested presidential election in 2016 is impressive in itself, but is made more significant by the fact that the month-long voting which started on April 10 is being held amid the most stringent anti-pandemic restrictions in HK.

A last-minute surge of voters from the El Shaddai Catholic Group and Iglesia ni Kristo who showed up at the polling centre at about 4pm, helped push the number up.

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Consul Bob Quintin, who has been deputized by the Commission on Elections to oversee the 2022 OV in Hong Kong, says more voters from the two religious groups could cast their ballots today, as it has been designated as a statutory holiday following Labour Day.

Members of 2 religious groups arrived in the last hour of voting for the day

The two groups, each with thousands of Filipino members, had always voted as blocs in the past but there has been no clear instruction this time from their leaders in the Philippines on who they should be voting for.

The two main contenders in the presidential race are Vice President Leonor G. Robredo and former Senator Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., who are running alongside Senator Francis Pangilinan and Mayor Sara Duterte, respectively.

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Meanwhile, a small group of women had milled around Bayanihan's entrance shortly after 5pm, hoping to still be allowed inside to vote.

"Sana nag overtime naman sila kahit ilang minuto lang," said one of them. (I wish they had worked overtime even for a few minutes).

Congen Tejada said if there was a need latecomers could be accommodated after 5pm, but ideally they should have at least reached the gate before it was closed. 

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He said Consulate staff helping administer the vote had been "super efficient" that the queues were cleared quickly, and that some of them had skipped taking a holiday so they could be at Bayanihan.

Poll watchers say the voting that has gone on for the past 22 days has been largely uneventful, except for a few odd voters who had kicked up a fuss, claiming the receipt that came out of the vote counting machine did not reflect what they had marked on their ballots.

Among them was one female voter who had claimed that the name of her chosen vice presidential candidate did not come out in her receipt, while another said no party-list name appeared in hers.

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On a few occasions, poll watchers and volunteers would draw the attention of precinct officers about some people showing up to vote wearing shirts with the name or logo of the candidate or party they were supporting, which is against Comelec’s rules.

But all these were settled amicably, with the voter being advised to just cover the offending name or logo with a jacket or a bag while they were in their assigned precincts.

The OV will end on May 9, when all 67 million registered voters in the Philippines get to cast their ballots. On this day, voting at Bayanihan will last until 7pm, two hours longer than for the rest of the voting period.

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3 flights suspended, 10 more Omicron sub-variant cases found

By The SUN

 

CX flights from Sydney and Vancouver are both grounded for a week from today

Three passenger flights from Australia, Thailand and Canada have been banned for a week each, on the eve of relaxation of Hong Kong’s flight suspension rules.

The move came as 363 new Covid-19 cases were reported Saturday, of which 25 were imported.

Suspended from May 1 to 7 are flights CX162 from Sydney, TR600 from Bangkok and CX865 from Vancouver, each of which carried three passengers who tested positive on arrival in Hong Kong.

The first two arrived on Friday, and the third, on Saturday.

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From today, the flight suspension mechanism will only kick in if five passengers who flew in together test positive on arrival. The period of suspension will also be cut to five days instead of seven.

Also starting today, fully vaccinated non-residents will also be allowed to enter Hong Kong, subject to the same seven-day hotel quarantine for all inbound travelers and a negative result for a PCR test taken within 48 hours of boarding their flights.

According to Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection, the newly recorded imported cases included 14 passengers who arrived in Hong Kong on Friday.

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Apart from the six who took TR600 and CX798, there was one Covid carrier each on flight PR300 from Manila and CX798 from Jakarta, two on SQ894 from Singapore, two on EK384 from Dubai via Bangkok, and two on KL819 from Amsterdam.

Dr Chuang also said that among the imported cases recorded in Hong Kong recently, 10 were found to carry the new Omicron sub-variants BA.2.12 and BA.2.12.1.

The cases, which involved three males and seven females aged 5 to 66, arrived in Hong Kong from Australia, the United States, Germany, India and Singapore between April 6 and 26.

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Seven of the patients tested positive on arrival while the remaining three tested positive during the compulsory seven-day hotel quarantine.

Chuang and Lau give the daily press briefing on Covid-19

Chuang said the strains are sub-lineages of the BA.2 Omicron variant, and that some studies have shown they are more transmissible.

No similar cases have been found in the community but CHP will continue to monitor the situation.

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The CHP expert said they hope the cases would continue to ease but there is a possibility that they would rebound as the social distancing measures are further relaxed.

"The Omicron variant is infectious. There could be millions of people who haven't been infected and people could be infected even after vaccination,” she warned.

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“We're also facing pressure in terms of imported cases as the global pandemic continues.”

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