Daily COVID-19 cases crossed the 2,000 mark for the first time in Hong Kong on Monday as authorities suspend face-to-face classes for two more weeks.
The Centre for Health Protection reported 2,071 infections on Monday, with 2,052 being local cases.
It added there were 4,500 preliminary positive infections.
Chuang Shuk-kwan, the head of the center’s communicable disease branch, said the number of confirmed cases were likely higher as there was a backlog of 1,000 to 1,500 specimens to be checked.
She explained that the Department of Health’s laboratories could not finish the testing in time due to the surge in specimens collected.
Authorities also reported four more deaths suspected to be linked to the coronavirus.
They include two preliminary positive cases — two men aged 77 and 82 — who died in hospitals.
Chuang added that there were two other patients who passed away before being admitted to hospitals.
One is a 73-year-old man who tested positive.
The other is a 77-year-old man who tested preliminary positive. He had coughed for a day, but passed away before an ambulance arrived.
The Hospital Authority said 10 patients were in critical condition, including a three-year-old reported to be fighting for her life a day earlier.
Sara Ho, the authority’s chief manager (patient safety and risk management), said only three of them are vaccinated.
With the government announcing on Sunday that children as young as three can get the Sinovac jab from Tuesday, she strongly advised children to get jabbed to protect themselves.
Ho also said that the occupancy rate of isolation beds was now close to 90 per cent.
She added she believed there were thousands of patients waiting to be admitted to hospitals.
“As medical professionals, we are also very impatient to take in all these patients,” she said. “We hope the public can understand our difficulties due to the rapid increase in the number of patients. We have to prioritize those with more serious symptoms, the elderly and children.”
But Ho said that if patients’ conditions worsened — such as having breathing difficulties, a persistent high fever, chest pain and increase in heart rate — they should quickly get someone to call an ambulance to send them to accident and emergency departments.
Separately, the Education Bureau announced on Monday that face-to-face classes for all kindergartens, primary and secondary schools would be suspended for two more weeks until March 6, 2022.
Schools in Hong Kong have been closed for in-person lessons since mid-January.
