Dr Lau Ka-hin, a chief manager at the Hospital Authority, said this was “very good news” for Hong Kong.

“Because of the shortage of manpower in the Hospital Authority, we are happy that private hospitals have provided many beds for our patients, including patients after operation, rehabilitation for convalescents,” he said. “After stable patients or non-Covid patients are transferred to private hospitals for treatment, we have more beds and capacity to treat our Covid patients.”

Lau also revealed a new platform was launched on Tuesday to support patients quarantined at home or in community isolation facilities.

Patients would receive a link via SMS to the platform, which would provide health advice and reminders after they input their personal details, coronavirus test results and related symptoms.

“Confirmed patients can report their serious symptoms such as continuous fever, hypothermia and convulsion to the platform. The system would alert and recommend them to seek medical treatment at the accident and emergency department or notify staff at the community isolation facilities accordingly,” he said.

The system would also remind high-risk patients including residents aged five and below, 70 or above, or those pregnant for more than 28 weeks to make medical appointments at Covid-19 clinics, he said.

In a related development, Dr Albert Au Ka-wing of the Centre for Health Protection said a breakdown of earlier infections logged between February 26 and March 5 on the rapid antigen test platform would be announced at Wednesday’s press briefing because a small number of patients who tested positive during that period still had not uploaded their documents to the platform. He said authorities expected to receive the information by midnight.

“Omicron is highly transmissive and there is a chance of aerosol transmission. One of its characteristics is that lots of patients are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, so we know that the numbers reported definitely do not reflect the actual situation because some people who have no symptoms may not undergo testing,” he said.

Although using the platform is voluntary, officials have encouraged people to undergo testing and report positive results as soon as possible to allow the government to grasp infection trends, certify infections and issue or update relevant documents, including medical records.

Submitting valid results through the portal carries legal implications for residents, as they will be classified as a confirmed Covid-19 case and issued an isolation order under the Prevention and Control of Disease Regulation.

Security chief Chris Tang Ping-keung earlier warned residents that refusing to go to an isolation centre could result in a HK$5,000 (US$638) fine and two months’ imprisonment, while those who left before being discharged could be fined HK$5,000 and jailed for up to six months.

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The Hospital Authority also revealed that Paxlovid, an oral medication made by Pfizer to treat Covid-19 infections, would be used in hospitals, designated clinics and homes for the elderly starting on Wednesday.

The government said on Monday the first batch of the drug had arrived in the city with more to follow in the coming months, while molnupiravir from MSD had been delivered in full and 1,600 courses administered in hospitals and homes for the elderly since March.

Both drugs will be given to high-risk Covid-19 cases with symptoms occurring within the last five days, who are aged 70 or over, have not received two doses of the BioNTech vaccine or three doses of Sinovac vaccine, and have blood oxygen levels of more than 94 per cent.

Those younger than 70 will also be eligible if they suffer from chronic illnesses or obesity, or are immunocompromised.

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The Hospital Authority also reported 228 coronavirus-related fatalities in the past 24 hours, involving patients aged between 19 and 107. Of those, 163 had no vaccination records, 36 had received one dose, 27 had two and two had three.

Another 56 people, aged 26 to 101, died earlier but were only included in Tuesday’s tally due to a backlog.

Five men aged 57 to 81 who died between February 27 and March 1 tested positive for Covid-19 in the morgue. The number of Covid-related fatalities for the entire pandemic stood at 4,568.

About 39 per cent of care homes for the elderly, or 313 in total, had logged cases over the past two weeks, with 29,170 residents and 7,290 workers infected since late December.

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About 40 per cent of homes for people with disabilities, or 133 facilities, have also reported cases over the past two weeks. Overall, 7,680 residents and 2,725 staff have been infected during the fifth wave.

The death rate for residents who had received two or more doses of a Covid-19 vaccine was 0.09 per cent and 1.86 per cent for the unvaccinated or those who had taken only one jab. For those aged 80 or above, the death rate was 3.2 per cent and 12.1 per cent, respectively.

Au also provided an update on genome sequencing results on 198 deaths recorded during the fifth wave, revealing 21 were the Delta variant (10.6 per cent), and 167 were Omicron (84.3 per cent), while the viral load of 10 samples was too low to sequence.

Respiratory medicine expert Dr Leung Chi-chiu said the 1,000 beds provided by the private hospitals could effectively lessen the burden on the public health care system.

“It’s a relatively reasonable number of hospital beds compared to the few dozens offered in the past,” he said. “This is helpful to non-Covid patients and will free up more space at public hospitals.”