Coronavirus: with smallest new infection count in weeks, Hong Kong’s Covid-19 situation ‘is improving’
- Experts say the spread is easing, and executive councillor observes domestic transmission ‘is pretty much under control’
- But some still voice caution, noting there are still unknown infection sources in the city
Hong Kong has turned a corner in its battle against the Covid-19 outbreak, medical experts said on Thursday after the city reported just 13 new infections.
The latest daily case number, the city’s lowest in three weeks, pushed the local infection tally to 973.
Referring to the general outlook after Thursday’s figures were revealed, Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, a respiratory medicine expert at Chinese University, said: “The situation is improving.
“Those who returned from overseas before March 19 and were infected should have already developed symptoms [if they were infected abroad] ... we were fortunate to see that there wasn’t a spread of community outbreak caused by this group.”
He was referring to the date when mandatory home quarantine came into place for all people arriving from overseas. He said any infected traveller who entered the city before the measure came into effect would have fallen ill on April 1 at the latest, factoring in the 14-day incubation period of the coronavirus.