Hong Kong reported 118 new coronavirus cases Thursday, setting another record high and marking a second straight day of a three-digit increase.
The city has also confirmed another virus-related fatality involving a 63-year-old male patient in Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He was admitted to hospital last week and has a history of chronic illness.
His passing brings the number of coronavirus deaths in the city to 15.
Around 60 infections from today have epidemiological links with patients who had earlier tested positive, most of which are family related.
Read more: ‘One call away’: Doctors from mainland China will help Hong Kong if outbreak worsens
The new local cases include a number of restaurant workers, a teacher and a police officer who works at the police headquarters in Wan Chai.
According to authorities, the officer works at the Narcotics Bureau and was last at work on July 20. Another officer at the New Territories South Traffic Headquarters has also tested preliminary positive.
The seven imported infections involve patients with travel history to the Philippines, India and Japan.
Hong Kong, currently in the thick of a third COVID-19 wave, is recording more cases daily than it ever had since the outbreak began in January.
The unprecedented surge in infections has caught medical workers off guard. Now, authorities are scrambling to relieve the burden on soon-to-be overstretched public hospitals by building “community quarantine facilities” for stable COVID-19 patients so that bed spaces can be freed up for those requiring more medical care.
The Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village in Chai Wan will open tomorrow, taking in around 30 recovering virus patients. The facility can accommodate about 350 beds.
David Hui, an infectious disease expert at Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in a segment with Commercial Radio that the government’s tightening of public health policies could be working as the city is not seeing an “exponential increase” in cases.
He added that it is not known whether Hong Kong has already seen the worst of the epidemic, and that the government may consider banning restaurant dine-in services all together—not just after 6pm—if it weighs that further restrictions are needed to curb the outbreak.
According to Health Secretary Sophia Chan, authorities will not rule out mandatory masking even in outdoor areas, and the closure of venues such as shopping malls if cases continue to rise.
To date, Hong Kong has recorded 2,250 COVID-19 cases. 33 patients are in critical conditions and 14 are in serious condition.
