By The SUN
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| Hospitals are ready to cope with an increase in demand when the infection peaks, says HA |
Health officials reported
2,004 new Covid-19 cases Wednesday, 155 of which were imported cases.
But Dr Lau Ka-hin of the
Hospital Authority said at today’s press conference that according to projections
by the University of Hong Kong, the infection is expected to peak only next
month, resulting in a surge in demand for hospital beds.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
“We estimate that 2,000 beds
will be needed when the cases peak in mid-July,” he said. “Thas why within a
short period of time we want to make sure enough beds are available.
Proportionately, given that
671 coronavirus patients are currently in hospitals, the total infection tally
could be three times more than what it is now.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Lau said that the Hospital
Authority is ready to increase bed capacity to 2,000 in 48 hours, and up to
11,500 in two weeks.
He said each time the number
of beds is increased, hospital staff already know where they are supposed to
go.
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| HOW? PINDUTIN LANG ANG PICTURE |
The additional beds will
first come from the infection control centre in North Lantau Hospital and could
later include isolation centres and the community isolation facility in
AsiaWorld-Expo.
But while the numbers are steadily rising, Dr Albert Au of the Centre for Health Protection said they do not expect a sudden surge in cases, and most of the patients still only have mild, or no symptoms.
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| Press for details |
“For serious cases or those requiring admission,
or death cases, so far these have still remained at rather stable levels,” he
said.
Many of the recent cases involving
the Omicron sub-variant BA.4 or BA. 5 are untraceable, he said, suggesting many
hidden transmission chains.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
“Starting this week we are
seeing more cases that are untraceable,” he said, adding that many of these
cases are not linked to an imported infection.
However, the dominant
sub-variant is still BA.2.12.1, which is the variant seen in big clusters, the
most recent of which was the outbreak at Victoria Harbour Restaurant in Tuen
Mun, which involved about 50 people.
Latest genome sequencing
analysis showed an additional 25 cases involving this variant, 13 of which were
untraceable and 10 were close contacts.
Among the new cases were
three patients in a medical ward in Tseung Kwan O Hospital, including an 88-year-old
woman. Two other patients in the ward were put under quarantine as close
contacts.
Of the 155 imported cases, 65
were picked up at the airport, 63 at the quarantine hotel, and 27 after
quarantine.
The new cases pushed up the
infection tally to more than 1.23 million. There were no Covid-related deaths so
the death toll remains at 9,186.
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| PADALA NA! |
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