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Coronavirus: Hong Kong confirms 129 new cases, untraceable infections surge as hospital chief warns of ‘tsunami-like’ outbreak after Lunar New Year
- Health authorities record 22 cases of unknown origin, the most since the city’s fifth wave began in December
- Hospital Authority chief executive Tony Ko urges residents to keep family visits during Lunar New Year holiday to a minimum
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Hong Kong returned to triple-digit figures for new coronavirus cases on Tuesday as health authorities confirmed another 129 infections, while untraceable transmissions rose to their highest number since the fifth wave began in late December
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The figures were revealed hours after the public hospitals chief warned of a potential “tsunami-like” outbreak following the Lunar New Year festivities and the government said it had trained 10,000 members of the disciplined forces to carry out contact tracing.
Ending the city’s two-day streak of double-digit caseloads, health officials on Tuesday recorded 102 locally transmitted infections and 27 imported ones. Of the local cases, 22 were of unknown origins. Previously, the highest number of untraceable cases reported in a single day since the start of the fifth wave was 15, this past Sunday. About 90 preliminary-positive infections were also reported.
The tally of confirmed cases stands at 14,326, with 213 related deaths.
Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, admitted the increasing number of untraceable cases showed the fifth wave had not yet been brought under control.
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