Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection said of the new cases, 5,876 were confirmed through PCR tests, and 8,273 were rapid antigen test positive results reported by citizens. The official caseload of the fifth wave now exceeds 1.03 million.

Four cases were imported from overseas, including Thailand and Singapore.

Chuang said 205 deaths were logged in the past 24 hours. She also reported 41 more deaths due to lagged results.

The 205 were 126 men and 79 women aged from 44 to 104, of whom 129 were unvaccinated, 44 got one jab, 31 got two and one received three doses.

A total of 99 deceased patients were residents at elderly care homes, while 194 were aged 65 or above.

The overall death toll of the fifth wave now stands at 5,683, including 2,220 women and 3,455 men aged between 11 months and 112. Sixty percent of them were elderly care homes residents and nearly 90 percent were not fully vaccinated.

Ming Pao Daily reported on Sunday that among 1,486 deceased Covid-19 patients who got jabbed, 1,292 received the Sinovac vaccine and 184 received the BioNTech.

In response, Chuang said the figures failed to show Sinovac are less effective in preventing deaths. More than 80 percent of the vaccinated elderly received the Sinovac vaccine, while only 20 percent chose the BioNTech, she said.

She said 3,837 of all deaths were patients aged over 80, of which 2,837, or 74 percent, did not receive the vaccine.

"The fatality rate of unvaccinated patients aged 80 or above was 15 percent," Chuang said. "For those who got one jab, the rate was 5.59 percent."

As long as the elderly received one jab, no matter which kind of vaccine, the mortality rate could be reduced by more than two times. Those who got two jabs saw their risk of death lowered by more than five times.

Fatality rate for those aged 80 or above and who received one dose of the Sinovac or BioNTech vaccine was 5.83 percent and 3.44 percent respectively, she said.

"The problem is not about which vaccine people received, but that many did not get any vaccines," she said.

The city has seen the number of confirmed cases drop below 20,000 for two consecutive days, as 16,597 cases were reported on Saturday.

The outbreak has already passed the peak, and a considerable number of people already had immunity, Chuang said.

However, she said it is unreasonable to decide whether the pandemic has receded just by the number of confirmed cases over the past few days.

She reiterated that the outbreak may rebound due to the relaxation of social distancing rules and frequent social activities, saying that there are still cases in the community that remain undetected.