Hong Kong reported another new high of 8,674 daily COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.
All but three are local infections.
As of 12am on Wednesday, 24 more patients, aged 52 to 97, died in the past 24 hours.
A total of 21 of them were above 65 years old. Of these 21, six received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, while one got one jab. The Hospital Authority said they did not find vaccination records for the rest.
The other three were aged between 52 and 59. They all suffered from chronic illness and only one was vaccinated.
The authority added that 19 more patients passed away on Sunday and Monday, which were not announced earlier due to a delay in reporting. They were aged between 52 and 98.
Authorities also took the opportunity to urge the public to get jabbed.
Chuang Shuk-kwan, the Centre for Health Protection’s head of the communicable disease branch, said after analyzing some death cases, they found the death rate among unvaccinated patients was 0.54 per cent – 18 times that of those who were jabbed.
As of last night, 24 patients were in critical condition, with four vaccinated. A total of 43 were in serious condition, with 10 jabbed.
Edwin Tsui, the center’s controller, said starting today, patients with a positive and preliminary positive result will receive a link via SMS to an electronic form, which would help authorities in arranging quarantine and isolation.
“We have to give the places in isolation facilities to those at highest risk… We will consider factors including whether the patient’s condition is stable, whether he or she is living with people at relatively high risk — such as elderly, children and pregnant women — and his or her household environment,” he said.
