Hong Kong passed a grim milestone on Wednesday with more than 1,000 confirmed coronavirus infections for the first time since the pandemic began, while the deaths of two chronically ill patients marked the city’s first Covid-19 fatalities in six months.
With isolation wards approaching capacity, health authorities announced that recovered Covid-19 patients no longer needed to wait 10 days to be discharged from hospital and would then undergo two weeks of medical surveillance at home.
Officials were also rushing to identify additional isolation facilities for patients to speed up admissions and planned to use one more block at the government’s Penny’s Bay quarantine camp for confirmed cases.
“We appeal to those who test preliminary-positive to stay at home patiently, as they might have to wait for a few days before being admitted to a hospital,” said Dr Larry Lee Lap-yip, a chief manager at the Hospital Authority. “Those on the top of the waiting list will be taken care of with a hotline for medical assistance.”
Eight of Wednesday’s 1,161 cases were imported, with the rest locally transmitted, while an additional 800 preliminary-positive infections were also reported.
The two fatalities involved a 76-year-old man who had not been inoculated and a 73-year-old man who had received two doses of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine. He was a resident of the Wan Luen Home for the Elderly in Sham Shui Po, one of five care homes where cases have emerged, with the others located in Tai Kok Tsui, Sha Tin, Cheung Sha Wan and Ngau Tau Kok.
“In the fifth wave, there have already been more than 10 elderly or disabled care homes with infected staff or small outbreaks, requiring people to be quarantined,” said Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch at the Centre for Health Protection. “We hope everyone will get vaccinated as soon as possible, particularly the elderly and care home residents.”
Two patients remained in critical condition, while another three were listed as serious. Of the five, who were aged between 50 and 83, two were fully inoculated, one had received a single dose and the remaining two were unvaccinated.
The city’s official tally stands at 17,808 infections, with 215 related deaths.
Chuang noted many untraceable infections had been discovered in Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City, Wong Tai Sin, Yuen Long, Sha Tin, Kwai Tsing, Tuen Mun, Tsuen Wan and Tai Po, but stopped short of announcing the number of unlinked cases.
“A lot of [untraceable cases] are still pending investigation,” she said. “An untraceable case does not mean we have no idea about its source. We just cannot link the case with a particular patient.”
Elsewhere in the city, more than 20,000 residents of Discovery Bay were issued a compulsory testing order overnight after sewage samples from the area tested positive for the coronavirus. Health authorities said a handful of infections were identified at DB Plaza shopping mall involving cleaners, customer service staff and concierge workers.
Anyone who has been in Discovery Bay for more than two hours in the past two weeks must undergo testing by Sunday.
Compulsory testing was also ordered for residential buildings at Mei Lam Estate in Sha Tin and Tin Shing Court in Tin Shui Wai, while the government extended the lockdown of Leung Kit House in Tuen Mun’s Leung King Estate until Thursday, after a total of 70 preliminary-positive cases were identified on Sunday and Tuesday.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on her official Facebook page that officials “felt deeply sorry and uneasy” that residents had to deal with long lines at testing centres and extended waits for arrangements to be made at isolation facilities.
In an effort to preserve health care resources, government pandemic adviser Professor Yuen Kwok-yung suggested that hospitals only admit Covid-19 patients with severe symptoms or underlying risk factors to accident and emergency departments.
“We have to cater our limited service capacity according to real needs,” he said, as he called upon residents to put off operations such as angioplasty or hip replacement.
Yuen added that quarantine hotels and camps should be reserved for a Covid-19 patient’s unvaccinated family members deemed at higer risk, such as the elderly and those with chronic illness, in order to “reverse isolate” them.
Respiratory medicine expert Dr Leung Chi-chiu warned against allowing Covid-19 patients to quarantine at home, but suggested designated hotels could be an option.
“Risks of transmission still exist when Covid-19 patients isolate at home, as their family members or neighbours could be infected, given that suspected vertical transmissions were reported in some buildings,” he told the Post. “Cross-infection between patients isolated at hotels was not a big problem; the most important thing is that the staff there not be infected.”
On Tuesday, the government announced the toughest social-distancing rules to date, and released further details on a new “vaccine pass” scheme set to be launched on February 24.
Starting from Thursday, the city will impose an unprecedented ban on private gatherings of more than two households, temporarily close houses of worship and hair salons, and reduce the cap on public gatherings to just two people.
Explaining the new measures on a radio programme on Wednesday, Permanent Secretary for Health Thomas Chan Chung-ching said there would be some exceptions when it came to showing proof of vaccination upon entering certain venues.
“If they must go through a shopping mall from an MTR exit, that’s also treated as a reasonable excuse,” he said. “There are some public passages in shopping centres; we will consider clearly marking out those areas.”
He added that the ban on gatherings of more than two households would not include funerals at religious venues, though no banquets would be allowed in restaurants.
Meanwhile, reservations for BioNTech vaccinations opened to children aged five to 11 on Wednesday, but as of 9am most of the booking slots on the government website were full, with the earliest available at the end of February.