HONG KONG - Officials said earlier today they are hoping to move all patients waiting outside hospitals' accident and emergency departments inside within the day, as they announced 3,629 newly confirmed COVID-10 cases and another 10 deaths.
A general manager with the Hospital Authority, Sara Ho, staff had been emptying staff rooms, outpatient clinics and even corridors in various hospitals in an effort to make space for more patients.
"As the temperature will be colder in the coming days, we are very worried about their health conditions. We will do our best to arrange all patients waiting outdoors to [be taken] indoors within today," Ho told a press conference.
She did not reveal how many patients are stuck outside hospitals.
Ho said the government was also helping to identify suitable venues that can be turned into temporary waiting areas.
Ho added that various hospitals had been transferring COVID-19 patients to other isolation or treatment facilities in order to admit more people.
Of the day's 3,629 new confirmed novel coronavirus cases, all but two are local infections.
Ten COVID-19 patients died in the past 24 hours, officials said.
The Centre for Health Protection's Dr. Chuang Shuk-kwan noted that the number of confirmed cases is lower than the figure for preliminary infections reported on Thursday, saying there were some 4,800 specimens yet to be processed.
She also said that some private laboratories hadn't sent them all of their samples for confirmation.
Today brought around 7,600 preliminary positive cases.
- RTHK, MPD
