Hong Kong health authorities said there was no point-to-point arrangement so far to take travelers who tested positive at Shenzhen Bay pot to hospitals or their homes, as the city reported 3,154 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday.
Among the new cases, 2,943 were locally transmitted, including 1,414 confirmed via PCR tests and 1,529 verified positive RAT results.
The Centre for Health Protection also reported 211 imported cases, 101 of which were identified at the airport, including 53 from the UK. The other 67 infections were detected at designated quarantine hotels, and 43 were located in local communities after the patients completed the seven-day isolation.
Asked whether lifting quarantine requirements for inbound travelers would pose risks to the community, Chuang said imported cases account for less than 10 percent of confirmed cases in Hong Kong, and the local community itself had a lot of transmission chains, so imported cases were currently not a threat to the community.
The Hospital Authority reported a new death -- a 102-year-old woman and a 65-year-old man, pushing the death tally of the fifth wave to 9,209.
Positive patients who were detected at Shenzhen Bay port could leave on their own, Chuang said the testing staff asked them to go home via point-to-point transportations, such as cabs, and required them to report their positive test results online.
The center was informed of 387 new cases from 309 schools today. Four schools will suspend certain classes for a week after the students and teachers caught
Covid.
They include three kindergartens -- First Assembly of God Primary School & Kindergarten, Maryknoll Convent School (Primary Section), CCWF King Shing Kindergarten, and Tsuen Wan Public Ho Chuen Yiu Memorial Primary School.
Four residents from four residential care centers were also infected with
Covid.
The city added 58 suspected cases of the BA.2.12.1 Omicron variant and 24 suspected cases of the BA.4 or BA.5 Omicron variants.
Public hospitals and treatment facilities are now housing 1,031
Covid patients. Among them, 18 are in critical condition, 30 are in serious condition, and nine are in hospital intensive care units.
As to why the Come2hk scheme from Macau was not suspended, Chuang reiterated that the Macau Health Code was already enough to prevent confirmed patients from leaving the city and that, so far, Hong Kong has not seen any imported cases from Macau.