People walk across a street in Hong Kong, May 3, 2022. (KIN CHEUNG / AP)
HONG KONG – Hong Kong reported 1,447 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, including 124 imported infections, bringing the city’s tally during the fifth wave to 1,218,025 cases.
Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection, said in a news briefing that new cases included 1,323 local infections and 124 imported cases.
Hospital Authority Chief Manager Sara Ho said the COVID-19 patient who died was a 65-year-old woman who had lung cancer that had already spread to her brain and spine
One new death was reported while seven new suspected local cases of the infectious Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1 were detected, she added.
Chuang said 159 students and 31 teachers from 165 schools also reported being infected. They included three additional cases linked to a basketball team at St. Francis Xavier’s School in Tsuen Wan.
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“We’ve asked them to suspend their activities,” Chuang said, adding that the infected students now number 10 from nine different classes.
She said an employee of Fedex’s Asia aviation office at the airport tested positive on June 18 and is a suspected local case because he had no travel history.
“He mainly worked at the office and would go to the apron for inspections. His colleagues are so far negative,” Chuang said, adding that he might have been infected by an imported case.
Hospital Authority Chief Manager Sara Ho said in the same briefing that the COVID-19 patient who died was a 65-year-old woman who had lung cancer that had already spread to her brain and spine.
“She already started hospice care in May,” Ho said, adding that the patient was hospitalized on June 19 for a fever but her condition worsened and she passed away on Tuesday.
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Fifteen COVID-19 patients were in critical condition, including three in intensive care units, and 10 in serious condition, Ho said.
Chuang said the number of hospital admissions remained stable while the number of new virus cases continued to go up and “may exceed 2,000 in the near future.”