HONG KONG – Almost one million people in Hong Kong have been infected with COVID-19 in the latest Omicron outbreak, the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said yesterday, as it reported 29,272 new cases.
A total of 14,454 of the new infections were confirmed by PCR tests in laboratories, while 14,818 were reported by people who tested positive in self-tests.
CHP Controller Edwin Tsui Lok-kin said at a press conference that 184,390 people reported COVID-19 infections via rapid home tests between February 26 and March 5, when they were first included in daily statistics.
The figure came from a self-reporting website launched last week.
He said the figure peaked on March 3, when almost 77,000 were recorded via both PCR and rapid tests.
The CHP said taking into account all the numbers, there have been 962,581 infections in the latest outbreak, or about 13 percent of the population.
Hong Kong has 7.5 million inhabitants.
Meanwhile, the Hospital Authority (HA) said 217 COVID-19 patients died over the past day, while there were 61 deaths previously unreported.
Authorities also reported the case of a patient who died at home.
More than 4,600 COVID-19 patients have died in the latest Omicron outbreak.
The HA said two seriously ill COVID-19 patients, aged 90 and 92, who had been staying at an isolation facility at the AsiaWorld-Expo, died at North Lantau Hospital yesterday morning.
They were taken to hospital after their conditions worsened. Medical staff tried to resuscitate them but they died soon after.
– RTHK, MPD
