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Hong Kong third wave: government tightens preventive measures as number of Covid-19 cases hits record high of 113
- Masks will be mandatory in all public indoor areas including shopping malls, and supermarkets starting on Thursday
- Residents coming back from high-risk nations of US and Kazakhstan must show negative test result before boarding flights from next week
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Hong Kong was hit by a record high of 113 new Covid-19 infections on Wednesday, more than half of them untraceable, as an increasingly worried government ramped up prevention measures to battle the escalating health crisis.
Mandatory mask-wearing will be extended to all indoor public places from Thursday, and residents returning from the United States and Kazakhstan, which have now been added to the list of high-risk countries, will be required to quarantine in hotels rather than at home and present proof they are free of the coronavirus before boarding flights back to the city from next week.
The government has been steadily expanding preventive measures to contain the third wave of the pandemic, shutting bars, limiting restaurant service and banning public gatherings of more than four people. But even more aggressive steps could be coming, warned Secretary for Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee.
“We do not rule out any further stringent measures, which basically would focus on social distancing,” Chan said. “Whether there will be a lockdown depends on the entire situation. We are looking at some international practices. We also have to balance people’s basic daily needs in Hong Kong.”
Among the new infections, 105 were locally transmitted, including 63 that were untraced, taking the city’s overall total to 2,131 with 14 related deaths. Since July 6, more than 330 cases of 721 local infections have come from an unknown source. The latest daily figure topped the previous record set on Sunday when 108 cases were confirmed.
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch at the Centre for Health Protection, said this week’s numbers were a snapshot of the crisis from much earlier.
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