Hong Kong's daily infections fall below 10,000

Hong Kong's daily COVID-19 infections decreased to less than 10,000 on Saturday and Sunday, as a cross-departmental task force was formed to help care homes overcome the epidemic and new initiatives were rolled out to boost vaccination rates among the elderly and people with disabilities.

The city logged 8,307 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, down from 8,841 on Saturday. Albert Au Ka-wing, principal medical and health officer at the Centre for Health Protection, said the decline is a good sign, but the caseload is still high. He cautioned that social distancing measures should not be eased for the time being.

On Sunday, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government announced that starting this week, door-to-door vaccination service will be offered to people aged 70 and above, and to those who have yet to get jabbed due to illness or disability, during targeted testing operations in buildings with infections.

A scheme will also be launched to help such people get jabbed at home, Hong Kong Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen said on Sunday. An online platform will conduct a trial run this week for eligible people to register for the outreach service, he added.

Nip said 6.5 million people in Hong Kong have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot, while about 5.64 million residents have had two doses and 2.67 million people have had three.

He called for more residents to get jabbed soon, adding that the government can distribute 100,000 doses every day, but the average daily vaccination number in the past seven days reached only 60,000.

Also speaking at the briefing, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor stressed that improving the vaccination rate is of paramount importance for the city to beat the novel coronavirus. It is also essential for the resumption of cross-border travel with the Chinese mainland and overseas regions.

On Saturday, Hong Kong Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong said the cross-departmental task force will be led by his bureau, with members from the Food and Health Bureau and the Hospital Authority.

The force will review the anti-epidemic capabilities of care homes for the elderly and the disabled, and its first task will be to improve the ventilation of care homes and issue related anti-epidemic guidelines, Law said.

The latest outbreak has hit care homes for the elderly and the disabled hard, with almost 3,700 residents having died after being infected, comprising about half the city's COVID-19 fatalities.

At Saturday's news conference, Lam said that although the ban on flights from nine countries will be lifted on Friday, flights by airlines that carry COVID-infected passengers to Hong Kong could be suspended at any time.

She said the government has no plan to substantially relax the rule.