A woman wearing a mask walks across a street in Hong Kong on March 25, 2022. (KIN CHEUNG / AP)
HONG KONG – Hong Kong reported 8,037 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday as a health official said the city was at a “critical moment’ to avoid a rebound in infections.
Albert Au Ka-wing, principal medical and health officer of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said in a press briefing that the new cases included 8,035 local cases and two imported infections.
The total number of COVID-19 deaths during the fifth wave of infections has reached 7,039, said Albert Au Ka-wing, principal medical and health officer of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch
He said 3,555 were confirmed through nucleic acid tests and 4,482 by rapid antigen tests.
Au noted that while the number of cases has gone down from their peak in early March, recent infections still ranged between 8,000 to 10,000.
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“I understand that we have been fighting the epidemic in such a stringent way for two to three months. People are feeling some fatigue,” Au said.
“But this is a critical moment. I hope everyone will observe the social gathering restrictions. If we relax now, the chances are, we are going to have a lot of transmission chains in the community,” he added.
Au said that there were 151 new deaths, including 21 cases that were not reported earlier.
The total number of COVID-19 deaths during the fifth wave of infections has reached 7,039, he said.
Au said the media age of those who passed away was 86 with 6,755 deaths, or 96 percent of the total, involving patients aged 60 and above.
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Larry Lee Lap-yip, chief manager (Integrated Clinical Services) of the Hospital Authority, said at the same briefing that the 130 patients who died in the last 24 hours included 78 men and 52 women aged 57 to 108 years old.
One of them was a 57-year-old expatriate who was unvaccinated and suffered from diabetes and hypertension.
He went to a hospital on March 21 after feeling weak and having a stomach ache. Tests showed that he had COVID-19 and pneumonia.
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Lee said the patient was transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where his condition stabilized and he had no need for oxygen support.
But on Saturday, he had a cardiac arrest and died at 5 am, Lee added.
He also said that 30 patients were in critical condition while 47 were in serious condition.