New confirmed COVID-19 infections in Hong Kong rose to 30,493 on Tuesday, reversing a four-day drop in cases since last Friday.
This came as positive rapid antigen test cases were included for the first time in the city’s COVID-19 reporting mechanism.
In a press conference, the Centre for Health Protection reported 28,475 cases detected via PCR tests conducted by public and private laboratories in Hong Kong. All but nine are local infections.
The other 2,018 confirmed cases are from an online platform — launched on Monday — for residents to report positive results of self-administered rapid antigen tests.
Albert Au, the center’s principal medical and health officer, noted that from 6pm — the time the platform went live — to 11:59pm on Monday, 17,236 positive cases were reported by residents.
After eliminating those that were previously confirmed and repeat submissions, the center recorded 14,715 valid submissions.
Au said the 2,018 are regarded as confirmed cases as the users had completed the submission of documents — including their identity proof and a photo of their rapid antigen test result — by 11:59pm on Monday. The center had issued isolation orders to this group and quarantine orders to their close contacts.
“The figure seems low but that is because our platform only started running after 6pm [on Monday],” said Au.
He added that the remaining 12,697 cases would be included in the center’s daily confirmed figure after the documents are submitted. He said he had noticed a large number of them had uploaded such information after midnight.
While the reporting of rapid antigen test results is voluntary, Au encouraged people to report their positive results so the community can be better protected from the pandemic and authorities can have a clearer grasp on the COVID-19 numbers in Hong Kong.
The principal medical and health officer also said that the pandemic was stabilizing with case numbers no longer increasing exponentially.
But to get a better picture, Au said it would take a few days to observe what the figures are like with the positive rapid antigen test cases included.
Meanwhile, the Hospital Authority said it recorded 160 deaths on Monday, aged four to 105.
Of this figure, 116 were not vaccinated against COVID-19, while 25 received one dose of a vaccine and 19 got two jabs.
There was also a backlog of 127 deaths, which were not announced earlier due to a delay in reporting. Their ages ranged from 56 to 102.
Au said the center also reported four cases of deaths at home in recent weeks. They were aged 32 to 85 and all had a chronic illness.
He added Hong Kong had recorded 2,365 deaths in the fifth wave.
