This came as Hong Kong recorded 4,040 cases -233 of which were imported - as well as seven more deaths, taking the death toll in the fifth local Covid wave to 9,334.

Hospital Authority's chief manager for quality and standards Lau Ka-hin said the baby girl tested positive in a rapid test last Friday. She suffered from a fever, coughing and vomiting.

She was sent to United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong in the early hours of Sunday and was found to suffer from croup, a type of respiratory infection.

Lau said the girl's condition stabilized after receiving medications and was then transferred to a general pediatric isolation ward.

He said other children have had croup in the past week.

He appealed to parents to take their children to hospitals immediately if they develop breathing difficulties and have high-pitch sounds when breathing, as the children may need urgent treatment.

According to the health authorities, 32 toddlers aged below three and 26 children aged three to 11 are hospitalized in public hospitals.

Centre for Health Protection's head of communicable disease branch Chuang Shuk-kwan said 402 schools reported 692 Covid cases yesterday, 11 of which had suspended classes with clusters.

One of the schools, Salesian School in Chai Wan, had outbreaks in both its school buses and classes.

Eight elderly care homes and three disabled homes also reported 13 infections, Chuang said.

She added that 12.7 percent of all cases were Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, signalling a continuing rise in the proportion of these subvariants.

Meanwhile, starting from today, Zhuhai will only allow people to cross the border to Macau once per day, after a Zhuhai woman who had frequently visited Macau tested positive on Sunday. Macau also required all residents to take rapid tests these past two days.