Hong Kong confirmed 67 new coronavirus cases on Thursday—the highest since the COVID-19 outbreak began in January. 63 are patients with no recent travel history.
In the last two weeks, 413 cases have been confirmed, representing over 25% of the total 1,655 infections to date.
“I cannot say this is a peak,” Chuang Shuk-kwan, the Head of the Center for Health Protection’s Communicable Disease Branch, said during an afternoon press conference. “There’s still a chance that more cases are coming.”
A total of 35 local cases have no known transmission source, adding to a worrying trend of untraceable infections increasing by the day.
The new cases include another individual linked to the Wong Tai Sin elderly home where close to forty people have tested positive, and a staff member at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where three patients in the same ward have already been infected. Another employee at the hospital has also tested preliminary positive.
A number of today’s infections also involve patients whose family members have already been diagnosed with the virus.
Six patients are in critical condition and 10 are in serious condition, authorities said.
Yesterday, two more COVID-19 patients passed away, including a 90-year-old woman who lived at the Wong Tai Sin elderly care home, and an 89-year-old man whose wife also has the disease.
Of the four imported infections, two are from the Philippines, one is from India and one is from Indonesia.
The government has put in place a series of new measures to fight the virus. Starting yesterday, restaurants are no longer allowed to offer dine-in services from 6pm onwards. (A number of virus clusters over the past week and a half have been linked to eating establishments.)
A ban on gatherings larger than four people has also been re-introduced, and gyms, beauty salons and karaoke lounges have once again closed their doors.
Authorities have appealed to employers to allow staff to work from home where possible, but the government has yet to call on its civil servants to work remotely.
David Hui, an infectious disease expert from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in an interview with RTHK on Thursday morning that he hopes the government will do so to encourage other companies to follow suit.
