The fourth wave of the Wuhan pneumonia epidemic in Hong Kong remains high, and there has been an increase in viral load, which has worsened the impact of the virus on young people, which previously primarily affected the elderly. The Hospital Authority pointed out that 23% of patients with severe cases were under the age of 60, reflecting the high proportion of patients with critical illness. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor described the trend of younger patients with severe cases as a cause for concern, and with confirmed cases in all 18 districts in Hong Kong, the government decided to further tighten preventive measures, including closing down more types of leisure venues, banning dine-in restaurants, allowing civil servants to work at home as much as possible, and increasing the number of tests on day 19 for immigrants.
Before attending the meeting this morning, Mrs. Lam said that there were 661 confirmed cases of novel pneumonia in Hong Kong in the past week, including more than 100 cases in three days, reflecting a complex and worrying situation that is close to the high level of the last outbreak in late July.
One of the complications is that the martial pneumonia virus has a tendency to become more severe and younger, said Jansong Chen, a member of the Hospital Authority’s Intensive Care Unit Coordinating Committee, at a press conference yesterday, adding that since the fourth wave of the epidemic, some patients have been admitted to hospitals in very poor condition, requiring intubation. Among the 33 critically ill patients in the hospital, more than 90% were admitted after the first of last month, and 6 of them were under the age of 60, including a 45-year-old male doctor from the Department of Histopathology at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, who was the first time since the epidemic that a health care worker was in critical condition.
He described the current epidemic as a “dangerous strain of the virus”, with a high viral load, high contagiousness, respiratory failure to produce antibodies, that is, the emergence of antibody response slower than the earlier three waves of the epidemic in patients, making the virus more easily transmitted, fearing that the virus in young people deteriorate faster.
More than 100 new cases confirmed in Hong Kong today
Seventy-eight new cases were diagnosed in Hong Kong yesterday, bringing the total number of martial lung infections to 6,975 and the number of deaths to 116. According to sources, the number of new cases exceeded 100 again today. Faced with the high level of the epidemic, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced this morning a new round of tightening of social distances, the direction of which is to reduce the flow of people.
She revealed that the number of civil servants working in offices will be further reduced, and that civil servants will be allowed to work at home as much as possible, but that some emergency services will be retained and employers in the private sector will be expected to allow their employees to work at home as much as possible.
In addition, the government will also prohibit restaurants from providing dine-in food after 6:00 p.m. Some of the premises that were not closed in the last round of measures will be closed, including fitness centers, sports premises, beauty parlors and massage parlors. She added that the authorities will look into providing support to the hard-hit industries.
Secondly, the authorities will also step up inspections. Mrs. Lam revealed that the Hong Kong government will develop regulations that will give the Secretary for Food and Health explicit authority to require people who are tested at a particular place or range of places to stay on the same premises and not go elsewhere until the tests are completed. It will also increase the number of times a person arriving in Hong Kong is required to be tested again on the fifth day after 14 days of quarantine.
In addition, starting today, the Airport Authority will provide virus testing services to departing passengers in the non-restricted areas of the airport.
Recent Comments