HONG KONG – Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor urged people to reduce gatherings over the holiday season in her Lunar New Year address video Thursday as the city logged 21 new cases.
“With technology bringing people closer together, we can extend festive greetings to relatives and friends living here and abroad and express our care for senior family members and citizens through various means,” Lam said in her message.
Seven of Thursday's fresh cases remained untraceable while about a dozen people tested preliminary-positive, the head of the Communicable Disease Branch of the city's Centre for Health Protection, Chuang Shuk-kwan, said
Seven of Thursday's fresh cases remained untraceable, while four were imported, involving an arrival each from India and Albania, and two from the Philippines, the head of the Communicable Disease Branch of the city's Centre for Health Protection, Chuang Shuk-kwan, said at a press briefing Thursday. About a dozen people tested preliminary-positive.
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At the press conference, she also sought to allay concerns about the government's COVID-19 risk mapping app.
CHP and the Auxiliary Medical Service conducted enforcement actions at three buildings in Sham Shui Po and Jordan on Thursday. Residents there had been served compulsory testing notices earlier.
In Sham Shui Po, 11 people were found to have ignored the compulsory testing notice and 42 in Jordan. Fixed penalties of HK$5,000 or compulsory testing orders were slapped on the offenders. Some were handed both.
Hong Kong’s Lunar New Year fairs seemed to be subdued this year amid coronavirus restrictions. Early afternoon on Thursday, just a few dozen people shopped for flowers in Victoria Park in the city’s dense Causeway Bay neighbourhood and across the harbour in Mong Kok.
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Hong Kong plans to ease some of its coronavirus restrictions starting Feb 18, re-opening sports and entertainment facilities and extending dining hours to 10 pm from the current 6 pm.
Vaccination campaign at the Asian financial hub is expected to start at the end of the month.
According to Hong Kong's Hospital Authority, 413 COVID-19 patients are currently being treated in public hospitals and at a community treatment facility at AsiaWorld-Expo, with 21 in critical condition.
So far, 185 COVID-19 patients have passed away in public hospitals.
Lam also visited on Thursday the Contact Tracing Office at Kai Tak Community Hall to learn more about the work of tracing the contacts of COVID-19 confirmed cases.
She noted that the office had successfully helped in tracing more than 7,500 contacts of confirmed cases, which translates to the identification of five contacts for each confirmed case.
Since the setting up of the office, more than 250 contacts per day have been traced on average, which is far higher than the 100 contacts traced daily before its establishment.
Lam thanked the government personnel for their hard work to help cut the virus transmission chain as soon as possible.
She then inspected the anti-epidemic measures at the construction site of the M+ Museum in West Kowloon Cultural District. During the visits, she extended her New Year greetings to people.
With inputs from Agencies