Coronavirus: at least 10,000 infected people still waiting to be admitted to Hong Kong hospitals as cases overwhelm public health care system
- Health authorities confirm new daily record of 2,071 infections while around 4,500 people tested preliminary positive – another high
- Worsening epidemic situation also means a further suspension of face-to-face classes for two more weeks until March 6
Hong Kong will have to double the capacity of its overwhelmed public health care system to cope with an exploding wave of Covid-19 cases, according to estimates by the Post based on official statistics, with at least 10,000 infected people still waiting to be admitted to hospitals and thousands more expected to join the list every day.
Health authorities confirmed a new daily record of 2,071 infections on Monday while around 4,500 people tested preliminary positive – another record high.
The Department of Health admitted that its laboratory was overwhelmed, with a backlog of test samples to be confirmed, suggesting the official number of infections reported each day could no longer reflect the actual situation.
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Hong Kong's Covid-19 isolation beds 90% full as city records more than 2,000 new cases
Citing the severity of the situation, the Education Bureau announced that face-to-face school classes would be suspended for a further two weeks, until March 6. The internal assessment for secondary school places allocation to be taken by Primary Six pupils would also be cancelled, the bureau said.
As part of ramping up the campaign to get most of the population inoculated against Covid-19, children as young as three will be allowed to take the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine from Tuesday.
The city’s public health care system is said to be on the brink of collapse, with the occupancy rate of isolation beds pushed to its upper limit of 90 per cent, thousands of Covid-19 patients still waiting in the community for admission, and more health care workers getting infected.
On the city’s testing capacity, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection, said the health department’s laboratory was overwhelmed, and about 1,000 preliminary-positive cases from Sunday had yet to be confirmed.
