HONG KONG - Health officials in Hong Kong today urged people to stay at home and avoid gatherings as they announced another 38 confirmed novel coronavirus cases in Hong Kong, 30 of them locally acquired infections and the rest linked to overseas travel.
Centre for Health Protection spokeswoman Chuang Shuk-kwan noted that more taxi drivers have come down with COVID-19, and a cluster involving an eatery in Jordan continues to grow. The source of infection for 13 of the new local cases has not been traced so far, according to Chuang.
Chuang acknowledged at a regular press conference that the COVID-19 situation has "gone a bit out of control", and she is worried space will quickly run out in quarantine centres if the surge goes on.
In addition to the new confirmed cases, preliminary tests on more than 20 other people have come back positive, Chuang said.
Chuang said she didn't expect the current outbreak to end anytime soon, being as the new cases are scattered across multiple districts.
She said people should stay at home and avoid gatherings to help slow down the rate of infection, warning there could be a major outbreak if people fail to keep up the preventative measures adopted earlier on in the pandemic.
With many of the new cases linked to East Kowloon, Chuang urged residents of the area to see a doctor and request a COVID-19 test if they show any symptoms of the disease.
"While waiting for tests, do not go to gatherings and see friends," she advised.
On Saturday, Hong Kong had added 16 new patients to its tally of locally transmitted coronavirus infections, following a jump of 32 cases on Friday and 34 on Thursday.
In total, as of yesterday, Hong Kong had confirmed 1,469 COVID-19 infections, with seven deaths.
Macau has confirmed 46 COVID-19 cases since late January. Only one of the patients is still in hospital. No local case has been confirmed for 104 consecutive days, according to official data.
- RTHK, MPD
