Hong Kong’s leader will not attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, instead remaining in the city to supervise anti-pandemic efforts after local health officials raised concerns about a rise in untraceable Covid-19 cases.

Hong Kong confirmed 92 new cases on Monday, 80 of them local, and 13 of those untraceable. The share of untraceable cases, at 14 per cent, was still well above the 9 per cent recorded on Saturday, but down slightly from the 18 per cent logged on Sunday.

The city’s confirmed infection tally now stands at 14,197, with 213 related deaths.

Many of Monday’s infections came from public housing estates in hard-hit Kwai Tsing and Wong Tai Sin districts, with many blocks reporting vertical and horizontal transmissions of the coronavirus.

Partial evacuations were ordered at four estates, affecting 40 flats at On Kwai House at Kwai Fuk Estate in Kwai Chung, and 23 units at Choi Wan (II) Estate’s Ming Lai House in Wong Tai Sin, among others.

“Starting with the fifth wave, we have quite a number of buildings – more than 10 – that have had vertical or horizontal transmissions,” said Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable diseases branch.

“Because of the nature of buildings in Hong Kong, we have high-rises, very crowded, with some sharing pipes or sharing physical conditions that may facilitate the transmission.”

She reminded the public to pour water into their U-traps or drain outlets to prevent the virus from entering living areas, adding that some of those who had become infected had failed to do so.

Meanwhile, a cluster of infections involving staff at the Sha Tin Methodist College continued to grow, with four testing positive and one preliminary-positive as of Monday. Another employee at Trend Plaza in Tuen Mun also came back preliminary-positive after a manager there was revealed to have been infected on Saturday.

A Tai Po pet shop employee, who was sent to quarantine on January 19, also tested positive with a high CT value on Sunday after six days of indeterminate results.

Monday’s 13 untraceable infections were spread across seven areas: Tsuen Wan, Kwai Chung, Yau Ma Tei, Tseung Kwan O, Fanling, Sham Shui Po and North Point.

Two residents of Choi Wan (II) Estate were found to be infected with the Delta variant, one a 45 year-old restaurant worker, and the other a 69 year-old retiree.

A homeless woman, 50, whose registered address was in Sham Shui Po, was also confirmed positive, but her whereabouts were still being ascertained.

Another unlinked case involved a construction worker at Hong Kong International Airport’s third runway, where one preliminary-positive and two positive cases had already been identified.

About 20 colleagues of the worker, who lives in Shek Lei Estate in Kwai Chung, were quarantined, while another 2,000 at the construction site would undergo testing.

There were 95 preliminary-positive infections on Monday, including a carer at Sheng Kung Hui Lam Woo Home for the Elderly at On Yam Estate in Kwai Chung. The Centre for Health Protection said they were still counting the number of residents who would need to be evacuated.

Meanwhile, confirming an earlier Post report, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who was earlier invited to Friday’s opening ceremony, said on Monday that she had cancelled plans to travel to Beijing on Wednesday.

Macau Chief Executive Ho Iat-seng would, however, attend the ceremony, a source said on Monday.

“As the pandemic situation has already reversed … I will not attend the Winter Olympics, but will for sure watch this brilliant Olympics on television, and hereby wish our three contestants a good result,” Lam said.

Lam’s decision came after Hong Kong health authorities warned of an increasing proportion of untraceable cases, and urged the public to avoid cross-family gatherings during the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins on Tuesday.

After weeks of complaints about the damper put on both the holiday and the economy by tough social-distancing measures, health expert Professor Lau Yu-lung, said on Monday that he believed Hong Kong could begin to pivot away from its zero-Covid approach and towards “living with the virus” in three to six months.

But Lau – who chairs the government’s scientific committee on vaccine-preventable diseases – said that could only happen once 90 per cent of the total population was inoculated.

He added that he believed mainland China would also formulate a Covid-19 exit strategy in the second or third quarter of this year. He pointed to remarks from leading Chinese health expert Zhong Nanshan saying authorities could consider living with the virus once the death rate could be kept below one in a thousand patients.

Lau went on to urge the city to prepare to align itself with the national policy, and told local health officials to look to Singapore’s experience as an example.

The ‘Leave Home Safe’ app has been updated.

Respiratory disease specialist Dr Leung Chi-chiu said the number of untraceable infections was worrying, and urged authorities to step up contact tracing and keep testing arrangements in place during the Lunar New Year holiday.

“By doing both intensively for a few weeks, we can terminate most of the transmission links, silent or not,” he said.

“The key problem in Hong Kong is the failure to mobilise the whole community to fight the fifth wave together. The fires are right with us at multiple places but people are still arguing whether we need to put them out!” Leung added, referring to proposals to live with the virus.

Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit Wing-hang, meanwhile, said the latest version of the “Leave Home Safe” risk-notification app could in effect be used to trace patients’ close contacts to help boost such efforts.

The latest version of the app, designed to align with the government’s launch of a vaccine pass, would require staff at various premises to scan residents’ passes containing details of vaccination records. The data will be saved in an encrypted format on the devices used by premises staff.

He added the new version could be applied to various premises and public transport. But whether the pass should be extended to cover public transport will be a decision for the government to make with health experts.

The chief executive on Monday also wished Hongkongers a “healthy, harmonious and auspicious” Year of the Tiger, saying residents exuded qualities represented by the animal, such as agility, courage and vitality.

“Such a spirit will not only help us get through the epidemic but will also take Hong Kong into a new era of prosperity as we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland.”

The government also announced new entry rules for arrivals from Taiwan, Macau and mainland China, starting from Saturday.

Depending on their inoculation levels, travellers from mainland China or Macau will undergo testing on the third, fifth and 12th day of their arrival, instead of the previous rule of one test before entry.

Arrivals from Taiwan will be able to quarantine at a hotel for 14 days and self-isolation at home for the remaining seven days.

Separately, the Wharf Group announced that its “Wharf Emergency Relief Fund” had pledged an additional HK$5 million donation to provide a third round of one-off cash subsidies to low-income families suffering from serious financial difficulties due to job losses, salary cuts and unpaid leave resulting from the current Covid-19 outbreak.