Explainer | What does Hong Kong’s ‘third wave’ of Covid-19 infections mean for life in the city, and what is being done to contain it?

With local cases surging, health authorities are reintroducing seating limits at restaurants, adding precautionary measures for certain categories of arrivals

Testing capacity is also slowly increasing, topping such countries as South Korea, but lagging well behind Singapore, Britain and the United States

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Seating restrictions at restaurants that were largely lifted on June 19 are now being reintroduced amid a surge in local Covid-19 cases. Photo: May Tse

Published: 10:00am, 10 Jul 2020Updated: 11:32am, 10 Jul 2020

Hong Kong has seen a dramatic resurgence in local Covid-19 cases in the past week, barely half a month after local authorities began significantly easing social-distancing regulations. A new cluster of infections inside an elderly care facility, a sector spared a single serious outbreak over the past five months, has taken many by surprise. The increasing number of local cases with unknown origins has also rung alarm bells.

Hong Kong residents prepare to provide saliva samples at Ping Shek Estate, where a noodle shop cook tested positive for Covid-19. Photo: Winson Wong

How significant is the new wave of Covid-19 in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong has recorded 132 new Covid-19 cases in the past week, with 65 locally transmitted infections. A group of infections at the Kong Tai Care for the Aged Centre Limited in Tsz Wan Shan accounts for 32 of the local cases, while more than a dozen cases are tied to a cluster involving a congee and noodle shop in Ping Shek Estate and a restaurant in Jordan, including six taxi drivers.

The city’s tally of confirmed infections jumped to 1,365 on Thursday.

The current situation, described by senior health officials as “very alarming” and a “third wave” of infections, has also seen more cases with unknown sources.

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