Coronavirus: fifth wave under control, says Hong Kong health chief as daily Covid cases fall below 300 for first time since early February
- Health chief Sophia Chan says monitoring is needed to ensure a gradual, safe and orderly relaxation of social-distancing measures
- Officials warn that more infections could be identified with face-to-face classes to begin resuming at 1,500 kindergartens and more than 400 secondary schools
Another five people died after getting infected with Covid-19, bringing the total number of fatalities to 9,318, officials said. The city’s tally of confirmed cases now stood at 1,204,793.
The latest cases, which included 11 imported infections, were the fewest reported since 131 on February 4, with the number more than doubling to 351 the following day.
With face-to-face classes beginning to resume at about 1,500 kindergartens and more than 400 secondary schools on Tuesday, health officials warned that more infections could be identified.
Dr Albert Au Ka-wing, a principal medical and health officer from the Centre for Health Protection, said nearly 350,000 pupils and about 50,000 teachers were subject to Covid-19 rapid tests daily last week when primary schools resumed in-person classes, and around 10 infections were found each day.
“As secondary schools and kindergartens resume classes on [Tuesday], the amount of people getting tested could double. It is possible that we could find 10 to 20 cases daily,” Au said. “It would not be surprising to see more cases on Tuesday.”
He reminded students and parents to prepare for the compulsory rapid antigen tests, and not to go to school if they tested positive.