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Hong Kong coronavirus fourth wave
Hong KongHealth & Environment

Hong Kong fourth wave: schools to close until after Christmas holidays as city confirms 115 new Covid-19 cases

  • Citywide suspension of face-to-face classes takes effect from Wednesday and into the new year
  • Among Sunday’s new cases, 62 relate to dance cluster, 24 have unknown infection sources

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Schools will be closed for the rest of the year from next week as Christmas comes early. Photo: Dickson Lee
Victor Ting,Chan Ho-himandPhila Siu

All Hong Kong schools will close from Wednesday until after the Christmas holidays to curb Covid-19’s spread, as the city confirmed a four-month high of 115 new infections and its leader warned tougher punishments for breaking coronavirus rules were coming.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor also revealed in an exclusive Post interview that an extensive work-from-home policy for Hong Kong’s 177,000 civil servants would be laid out “in a day or two”, with the city entering a critical phase of its fourth Covid-19 wave.

The government ordered the schools to shut down as Sunday’s tally marked the highest daily increase in infections since the contagion surge started more than a week ago, and the first time the city had recorded a three-figure rise since the 125 cases logged on August 1.

Of the latest cases, 62 were tied to the dance venue cluster – bringing the city’s biggest Covid-19 outbreak so far to 479 – 23 others had known links, 24 were untraced and six were imported. More than 50 people also tested preliminary-positive for the virus.

“According to the trend and the numbers so far we have observed, it seems that [the fourth wave] is more severe than the last wave,” said Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch.

“But of course it depends on the coming days. We have so far tightened some social-distancing measures, and increased the general awareness of the public and increased testing.”

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