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Coronavirus: Hong Kong Covid-19 testing and quarantine flaws blamed for new wave of infections
- Third wave of cases in Hong Kong brings 28 new local infections over two days
- Experts point to a lack of Covid-19 testing and issues with quarantine exemptions as key factors
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Insufficient testing and lax surveillance of those exempted from quarantine are behind a new wave of coronavirus infections in Hong Kong, according to public health experts.
The confirmation of 28 new local cases over the last two days, including 10 with unknown sources of infection, has been a shock to a city getting used to the continued relaxation of social-distancing curbs, including a dramatic easing of restrictions more than two weeks earlier.
Describing the run of new cases as the city’s third wave of contagion, health officials announced on Tuesday evening a basket of revised measures to counter the worsening situation.
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One of the core clusters of the latest upsurge centres on a care home for the elderly, a service sector Hong Kong has been successful in protecting over the past five months of the health crisis, when many parts of the world have struggled.
But that ended when an 85-year-old female resident of Kong Tai Care for the Aged Centre Limited in Tsz Wan Shan was confirmed on Tuesday as infected, with eight more residents and staff revealed the following day as carrying the virus.
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Professor Gabriel Leung, a government adviser on the Covid-19 pandemic and dean of the University of Hong Kong’s medical school, suspected the infection at the care home was brought in by staff, and criticised the government over what he saw as the lack of coronavirus testing for workers.
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