By Daisy CL Mandap
CHP says cases have surged because more people are getting tested (RTHK photo) |
A one-month high of 107 new coronavirus cases were reported today, Jan 18, all but five of them locally acquired.
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection acknowledged that the number of cases was “a bit high,” but said it was largely because of the mandatory testing ordered by the government for residents of infected buildings.
Pindutin para sa detalye |
“The surge is because we are doing more testing,” Chuang said.
She also noted that 42 of the local cases were of unknown origin, indicating that there’s a significant amount of silent transmissions still going on in the community.
Call us! |
Among the cases she mentioned in particular were 28 found among residents of buildings in Jordan and Yaumatei that are now under mandatory testing.
Residents of seven more buildings in the area were today
also ordered to take tests after new cases were reported from their housing
blocks. The buildings are located on Shanghai Sreet,
CONTACT US! |
Chuang said about 120 cases have now been identified within Yaumatei alone. Since early January, some 600 cases have been recorded in the district, and about a quarter of them are reportedly of South Asian descent.
“They usually live in crowded areas with close-knitted community, so they may spread the infection through environmental contamination and also person-to-person interaction with their families and friends in the streets or parks,” said Chuang.
Pindutin para sa detalye |
Of the five imported cases, included was another infection
that occurred 19 days after the patient arrived in
She was the third newly arrived patient in the past week to be found infected on the third and final coronavirus test prior to being discharged from quarantine.
PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
Another patient from
Two others, both foreign domestic workers who each flew in
from the
Another patient tests positive 19 days after arriving in Hong Kong |
Dr Sara Ho from the Hospital Authority reported that an 86-year-old female patient at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital passed away at 12:09pm today, raising the total death toll in public hospitals to 159.
CLICK FOR DETAILS |
She also reported two medical workers who tested preliminary
positive. One is a support staff at QEH who tested positive for the virus on
Jan 15. The other is a doctor at
Ho disclosed that the doctor had performed an intubation on a confirmed Covid-19 patient on Jan 5, but had worn adequate PPE.
“We are not saying this is the source of the infection. In fact, there are a lot of cases in the community and our staff could also be infected in the community,” said Ho. “But we need to do contact tracing to find the source of infection.”
Ho said 578 confirmed patients are being treated in public hospitals, of whom 41 are in critical condition, 27 are serious, and 510 are in stable condition.
Tunghayan ang isa na namang kwentong Dream Love |
A total of 8,785 patients have so far recovered.
CALL US FOR MORE DETAILS
|