22e210cf-372d-4e5e-895a-a3e2e4b096ca_4bd910f0
Hong Kong’s daily Covid-19 caseload could exceed 10,000 in the coming week if infections involving the highly transmissible BA.5 variant grow exponentially, an expert has said, while two more senior officials are among new coronavirus patients.
To cope with the rising number of people needing treatment for Covid-19, the Hospital Authority revealed on Friday it had entered its third stage of epidemic response, doubling the number of beds available for such patients to 5,000, while encouraging more private hospitals to take in cases.
The government separately said Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau Ying-wah and Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration Warner Cheuk Wing-hing had tested positive for Covid-19 and were currently serving quarantine.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
They are the latest senior officials to be infected with the coronavirus after Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu Chak-yee and Director of Immigration Au Ka-wang returned positive results on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.
Respiratory medicine expert Dr Leung Chi-chiu told a radio programme the current pandemic trend was “not optimistic”.
Hong Kong logs over 8,500 Covid cases; warnings of ‘heavy healthcare burden’
“Why are we seeing this overall increase in cases? This is mainly because of the rapid increase of BA.5 variant infections, in other words, it is growing at a pace that is doubling every week ,” he warned.
Leung estimated there were about 3,600 BA.5 variant cases reported on Thursday when the daily Covid-19 tally hit 8,579 – the highest since March 27.
“If these cases grow exponentially in a week, then next week, the BA.4 or BA.5 numbers would be about 7,000,” he said. “Adding the 4,000 cases from other variants, then our case numbers will go over 10,000 within next week.”
The last time the city saw infections hit the 10,000 mark was March 25 with 10,405 cases.
Hong Kong to double number of hospital beds for Covid patients to 5,000
Leung cautioned that if reinfections counted among new cases also continued to rise, there might be a chance the figure could surge to a low five-digit.
The Centre for Health Protection said on Thursday it expected daily Covid-19 numbers to reach 10,0000 “soon”, creating a heavy burden on the healthcare system. But it dismissed the possibility of the surge in cases as a sign of the beginning of a sixth wave.
It noted the fifth wave had never ended despite cases dropping to a few hundreds in April.
Hospital Authority chief executive Tony Ko Pat-sing told the same radio programme on Friday that the third stage of an epidemic response had been triggered this week, and the amount of beds for coronavirus patients would be increased.
“We hope in the third stage, around next week perhaps, we can have 3,000 or more beds, so that we can arrange for those suspected or confirmed to be infected with Covid-19 to enter our quarantine facilities,” he said.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Coronavirus Hong Kong: health authorities warn of ‘worrying’ rise in cases, as officials investigate more than 600 suspected breaches of Covid orders
- Hong Kong to double number of public hospital beds for Covid patients to 5,000, with plan set to reduce non-emergency services by 20 per cent
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2022.
