Coronavirus: Hong Kong reports 2,227 infections even as bad weather forces testing centres to close, while Macau confirms 56 cases as outbreak persists
- Number of cases confirmed by health authorities is down slightly from the 2,318 reported on Friday
- Macau continues to struggle with lingering outbreak and has implemented universal testing and tighter social-distancing rules
Hong Kong on Saturday confirmed 2,227 infections, of which 143 were imported, down slightly from the 2,318 cases reported on Friday. The city’s coronavirus total stands at 1,250,088 infections, with 9,405 related deaths after three more were announced.
The number of cases involving the more transmissible BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants has risen sharply this week, going from nine in total on Monday to 36 on Friday, although most health experts say the strains do not cause more severe illness than the original virus and have advised against tightening social-distancing rules for now.
Of Saturday’s cases, two involved the BA.5 strain, taking the total recorded in the city to 75, while the overall number of infections of the BA.4 variant remains at 35.
Respiratory medicine specialist Dr Leung Chi-chiu said he believed the “typhoon effect” would start to emerge on Sunday.
“Some tests did continue before the No 8 typhoon signal yesterday, the maximum effect may be seen tomorrow,” he said.
“PCR testing, either direct or for confirmation of rapid antigen tests [RATs] will have been affected to some degree.”