Coronavirus: Hong Kong confirms zero new cases for first time in 7 months; expert calls recent trend ‘encouraging’
- The last time no new daily infections were reported was on October 14
- Milestone prompts opposition party to call for relaxed social-distancing rules, saying justification for restrictions has been ‘lost on the back of these numbers’
The last time no new daily infections of any kind were reported was on October 14, but the city had just been hit by Typhoon Nangka, with the storm disrupting collection of test samples. The milestone before that was on June 16 last year, at the tail end of the city’s second Covid-19 wave.
Authorities have recently focused their efforts on achieving zero untraceable infections in the community – the longest streak so far being 21 days, broken on May 15 – as a condition for reopening borders with mainland China.
As of Thursday, the city’s official case tally stood at 11,836, with 210 related deaths. There were fewer than five preliminary-positive cases pending confirmation.
Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, a Chinese University respiratory medicine expert and government pandemic adviser, warned against reading too much into Thursday’s zero cases, saying one day’s figure did not tell the full story.