Hong Kong fourth wave: health chiefs warn of potentially ‘explosive outbreak’ of Covid-19, as 101 new cases confirmed

Government also orders all taxi drivers who intend to work between Christmas Day and January 23 next year to get tested by December 22

Science Park chief Sunny Chai among those confirmed as infected, source says

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Hongkongers queue up for Covid-19 testing on Saturday. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 12:20pm, 5 Dec 2020Updated: 12:28pm, 8 Dec 2020

Hong Kong could face an “explosive outbreak” soon if Covid-19 cases and untraceable infections remained high, health officials warned on Saturday, as the government announced mandatory testing for all taxi drivers.

Centre for Health Protection officials raised the alarm as 101 new coronavirus cases were confirmed, the fourth time this week a triple-digit number was logged.

Sunny Chai Ngai-chiu, chairman of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, a publicly owned tech hub, was among those infected, according to a source, but authorities would only say an employee of the group was confirmed as having the coronavirus.

Infection clusters at dance clubs, care homes, a construction site and a private hospital continued to expand on Saturday, while untraceable infections remained high, at 29 cases. Thirty-six infections of unknown origin were recorded on Friday, the highest since the city’s fourth wave started last month.

Hong Kong diners eat lunch under tough new social-distancing measures. Photo: Dickson Lee

“The current state of the pandemic in Hong Kong, I can say, is very serious,” Dr Albert Au, from the centre’s communicable disease branch, told a regular Covid-19 press briefing.