Among Sunday’s arrivals, about 4,300 were Hong Kong residents, 1,500 were mainland Chinese, and another 290 were tourists, Immigration Department figures showed. The numbers still fluctuated, with about 6,100 arrivals on Friday and 4,800 on Saturday. On Monday, about 5,600 people arrived in Hong Kong.

In comparison, arrival figures over the past three months were mostly between 1,000 and 5,000 before the quarantine regulations were relaxed.

Hong Kong logged 5,162 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday, including 272 imported cases, and 11 related deaths. The overall tally stands at 1,427,080 cases, with 9,580 linked fatalities.

Dr Lau Ka-hin, a chief manager of the Hospital Authority, said rising infections had put pressure on the healthcare system, as an average of 200 Covid-19 patients were admitted to hospital each day recently.

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Authorities would double the number of Covid-19 beds to 5,000 if the situation further worsened, he said.

“We expect that there will be [an] increasing number of patients being diagnosed in the community as well as admitted to hospital. This is a very simple calculation, when there are 200 patients diagnosed and admitted to hospital and when they stay for 10 days, we need 2,000 beds,” he said, adding some non-emergency services might be adjusted as a result.

Lau revealed that an infected 27-month-old boy who developed croup – a condition resulting from a viral infection of the upper airway that causes breathing difficulties – was now in stable condition after being listed as critical a day earlier.

He said the boy no longer required intubation and was able to breathe on his own, while a five-year-old girl who was admitted to the intensive care unit at Tuen Mun Hospital on Friday remained in critical condition.

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Lau also said outbreaks had occurred at the clinical oncology ward at Tuen Mun Hospital and general medical ward at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, involving 14 and seven people respectively.

In view of the rising arrival figures, tourism sector lawmaker Perry Yiu Pak-leung said hotel rooms were able to accommodate 7,000 to 8,000 people a day after quarantine was cut to three days.

“The current room rotation is double that of before. I didn’t see the hotel room supply was tight, nor is it very difficult to book,” Yiu said.

With 26,200 rooms across 68 properties, the government’s quarantine hotel booking website on Tuesday showed at least 49 still had spaces available for the second half of August. Bookings were also available September.

Yiu said the government could keep a close eye on arrival demand and increase the number of hotel rooms if needed and also review whether to cancel hotel quarantines after one month’s operation of “3+4”.

“The quarantine arrangement cannot attract tourists … I hope the epidemic can be controlled well in the city and the government can further open up the city,” Yiu said, hoping that the hotel quarantine could be dropped altogether in the fourth quarter of the year.

Legislator Chow Man-kong, who is also a specialist in mainland-Hong Kong economic policies, expressed worries that despite the eased measures, it might still be difficult for travellers such as international and mainland students to book hotel rooms for quarantine, with only two weeks left before the start of the new academic year.

According to the Heads of Universities Committee, more than 41,600 new non-resident students will study in the city from September, with 29,500 of them coming from the mainland and the rest from around the world.

“Given the relaxed arrangement, more people have been coming to Hong Kong, it is harder for students to arrive in the city,” Chow told a radio programme.

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Chow suggested increasing the current 2,000 quota of the “Come2HK” arrangement, which exempts non-Hong Kong residents from Guangdong province and Macau from quarantine.

He also recommended expanding the scheme to other low-risk mainland cities to benefit students and reduce the need for quarantine hotels.

He also urged the government to consider using vacant community isolation facilities for students’ quarantine arrangements, particularly those near border checkpoints, such as centres on the artificial island of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge and in San Tin.

In a reply to the Post, the Education Bureau said most mainland students were eligible to apply for quarantine-free arrangements, while daily quotas were still available for students. It added that quarantine hotel rooms were also available until September for incoming non-local students.