HK daily Covid caseload exceeds 2,000-mark the third consecutive day

Hong Kong reported 2,318 new Covid-19 cases on Friday as the city saw the daily infections surpassing the 2,000-mark three days in a row. 

Among the cases, 2,165 were locally transmitted while the remaining 153 were imported cases, according to the Centre for Health Protection's principal medical and health officer Albert Au Ka-wing. 

Eighty-five of the imported cases were detected at the airport, 47 at quarantine hotels and 21 were patients who tested positive after they completed the seven-day isolation. 

Au also reported that the caseload of the fifth wave now stands at 1,235,484. 

Hospital Authority's chief manager for quality and standards Lau Ka-hin added a related death -- an 88-year-old female elderly home resident -- pushing the death tally to 9,189. 

The woman had a stroke before and suffered from dementia. She was admitted to a hospital on Thursday last week, saw her PCR test result returned positive last Saturday and passed away yesterday (Thu). 

Four more elderly homes reported new infections, including two staffers ad three residents, while schools didn't add new cases today. 

The center, on the other hand, identified 36 cases carrying the BA.4 or BA.5 Omicron subvariants. Nineteen of them were imported cases and nine were local unknown source cases. The other eight were detected through epidemiological investigation, including seven patients who had been to Hotpot Foodie in Kwun Tong on June 24. 

So far, the hotpot cluster reported 11 infections and the patients developed symptoms between Sunday and Thursday. 

The city saw a total of 63 cases of the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants at this point. Thirty-one cases of the BA.2.12.1 Omicron subvariant were reported today as well. 

In the past 24 hours, 94 patients have recovered from Covid and 74 of them have been discharged.