Coronavirus: surge in cases prompts Hong Kong to bolster testing; infections top 1,000 for 3 days straight

• Daily rapid antigen testing requirement for students and school staff will be kept in place until the end of the school year

• Care home staff will be required to receive the third vaccine dose and undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test every two weeks

• Reverse quarantine plan for care homes with outbreaks

• Kai Tak Cruise Terminal isolation facility could be reopened at any time

• Handover anniversary celebration events to continue, while participants will receive free testing kits

• Testing kits will be distributed to more groups, including property management companies, and construction sites

Authorities have strengthened Covid-19 testing measures and revived plans to tackle possible large outbreaks at care homes in Hong Kong, as the number of infections exceeded 1,000 for a third straight day.

Cases have been discovered in 11 care homes over the past seven days, with both staff members and residents infected, health officials revealed on Friday, stoking fears of the virus spreading among some of the city’s most vulnerable residents much as it did at the peak of the fifth wave in March. While Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor set out several measures aimed at combating the rising number of infections, no specific strategy for boosting the vaccination rate among the elderly was mentioned.

“The direction of our work is to reduce any possible emergence of large outbreaks,” Lam said. “We are targeting key premises and groups of people, as well as raising epidemic awareness and anti-epidemic abilities.”

Health authorities on Friday confirmed 1,014 local infections and 131 imported ones, along with one additional death linked to the virus. While the daily number of cases has nearly doubled since last week, the city has so far managed to avoid an explosion of infections, according to Dr Albert Au Ka-wing, principal medical and health officer at the Centre for Health Protection.

“In the past two weeks, there has been a gradual increase in the number of cases. We can confirm that there are a large number of chains of transmission in the community and a certain degree of transmission,” Au said. “We expected the caseload to be at this level after social-distancing rules were eased … We hope to avoid an explosive increase in cases, which we have not seen as of now.”

The centre’s joint scientific committee also advised extending the interval between the first and second dose of the German-made BioNTech vaccine from three weeks to eight for people aged 18 to 59. The recommendation was based on additional evidence indicating that a longer delay would result in a better immune response and lower risk of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle.

Among the measures announced by Lam, students and school staff must continue taking rapid antigen tests (RAT) daily to enter campus until the end of the academic year in mid-August. Lam also urged schools to reduce meal gatherings that would involve students or staff taking off their masks. A total of 126 schools reported infections, involving 102 students and 43 staff.