COVID-19: HK sees 111 local cases among 118 new infections
HONG KONG - Hong Kong reported 111 local coronavirus cases on Thursday -- its second day of more than 100 local infections -- as the city scrambles to boost hospitalization and testing capacity in the face of its worst outbreak ever.
The city also reported seven imported COVID-19 cases Thursday, said health officials at a media briefing in the afternoon.
The latest cases brought the city's infection tally to 2,250.
Out of the new local cases, more than 60 are related to previously confirmed outbreak clusters, said Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection's (CHP) Communicable Disease Branch.
The seven imported cases involve persons with travel history to the Philippines, India and Japan, according to Chuang.
Linda Yu, a chief manager of the Hospital Authority, said at the briefing that as of Thursday afternoon the death toll of COVID-19 in Hong Kong has risen to 15.
Currently 716 confirmed patients are hospitalized in 14 hospitals across Hong Kong, including 33 in critical condition and 14 in serious condition. The occupancy rates of negative pressure rooms and isolation beds in public hospitals are 76.9 percent and 74.6 percent respectively, Yu said.
At a press conference on Thursday morning, the Hospital Authority said it had decided to start using the community isolation facility at Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village to receive suitable patients with particular clinical conditions in order to alleviate the demand for the isolation beds in public hospitals.
About 30 COVID-19 patients who are in the process of recovery will be admitted to the facility on Friday.
This is the first time since the COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong that a community isolation facility is used to receive mild patients.
The Hong Kong government also announced that the special work arrangement for government employees will be extended for one week until Aug 2. Except for those involved in the provision of emergency services and essential public services, all other government employees will continue to work from home, the spokesman said in a press release.