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HONG KONG – With a resurgence of Covid-19 infections in the city, the Hong Kong government will expand mandatory testing and extend current restrictions that were due to expire this week to keep the pandemic under control.
The city recorded 56 confirmed cases on Tuesday (January 19), bringing the count to 9,720 and 164 deaths.
Of the daily figure, all but one are local cases, 23 from unknown sources and 31 from the densely populated Yau Tsim Mong, comprising Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok districts.
Pressure is mounting for authorities to contain the spread in the area, as more than half of the 60 patients who tested positive in preliminary tests belong to this group.
On Monday, the daily number of new cases peaked at 107, the highest in a month.
“This shows that we still have broadcast networks across the country,” Executive Director Carrie Lam said Tuesday. “So what we have to do now is come together and slow down the broadcast as much as possible.”
Health officials said Tuesday that residents in a government-designated “central area” in Jordan and Yau Ma Tei will have to undergo mandatory testing even if the buildings they live in have no reported cases. The central zone comprises at least 70 buildings identified as having “appalling poor environmental hygiene” or lacking property management services.
So far, more than 13,000 residents living in the area have been tested.
Mandatory testing has also expanded to nearby Sham Shui Po and residents in buildings who have only one confirmed case in the past 14 days will also be tested.
The government added that the mandatory tests will also apply to residents living in buildings where sewer pipe samples are found to have the coronavirus.
“Overall, we will intensify our testing and identification efforts so that we can identify confirmed cases as early as possible and slow down chains of transmission,” Ms. Lam said at her weekly morning briefing.
More residents in a Chai Wan public housing block will be evacuated after more than a dozen infections were reported. Health experts had said that it could be due to vertical transmission within the building as a result of leaking sewer pipes.
In terms of border control, officials said the government will ban visitors from Brazil and Ireland from flying to Hong Kong given the severity of the pandemic in those countries.
Among the existing measures that will run for a week until January 27 is the work-from-home arrangement for public officials. Several businesses, including gyms, hair salons and bars, remain closed, while the limit for public gatherings at two, as well as the ban on dining in restaurants after 6 p.m., remain.
The schools, which have been closed for most of the past year with online learning, will remain closed until after the Chinese New Year holidays that end on February 15.
On Tuesday, Food and Health Secretary Sophia Chan said the government will allow the annual Chinese New Year fairs, but strict rules will be imposed. This is a U-turn from an earlier decision.
He noted that trade shows will now be smaller in scale, with fewer separate booths and crowd control management in place.
Meanwhile, the advisory panel on the Covid-19 vaccine said on Monday it will recommend to the government that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine be approved for use in Hong Kong.
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