Flu season expected to persist with HK seeing slight rise in Covid cases

The Centre for Health Protection announced Tuesday that the local seasonal influenza activity persists at a high level and it is believed that the current influenza season will persist for a period of time, coupled with a slight rise in Covid cases.

The announcement came on the heels of the death of a four-year-old girl infected with influenza A - a third of such cases this year.

Speaking to the press this afternoon, Dr Wong Hoi-kei, senior medical and health officer of the center’s communicable disease branch, said Hong Kong entered the winter influenza season at the beginning of January and the activity level of influenza has remained high and is expected to persist for a period of time.

The dominating flu virus strain has changed from influenza A subtype H3 at the beginning of the year to subtype H1, with over 80 percent of the cases currently being subtype H1, said Wong.

Meanwhile, Wong said this influenza season currently sees a total of 599 severe or fatal cases of influenza in adults, with 71 percent of them not receiving the seasonal influenza vaccine. Over 80 percent of these cases had underlying chronic illnesses.

Additionally, there were 22 severe cases in children, including three deaths. Among them, 77 percent had not been vaccinated, 10 individuals developed severe pneumonia, and 8 cases involved complications of the nervous system. There were also three cases of shock and one case of myocarditis, according to the health official.

Wong also noted that there has been a slight rise in Covid cases, calling on high-risk individuals to get jabbed.