People urged to stay home as HK hits record number of daily virus cases for third day

Hong Kong has reported a new record-high in daily confirmed coroanvirus cases for the third consecutive day today.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection said there have been 123 additional cases as at midnight – exceeding yesterday's 118 cases – bringing the tally to 2,373, which includes one probable case.

Eight cases are imported and 115 are locally infected. Among the local cases, 62 are linked to previous cases and source of infection for 53 others are still unknown.

Chuang said the epidemic is serious and worrying, but people are still doing many activities. She said the medical system has been overwhelmed and that hospitals' admission capacity have reached limits, fearing that quarantine and isolation will become futile.

She urged people to stay home for the next one to two weeks and reduce social activities.

The Hospital Authority said a total of 1,407 patients have recovered so far after 28 more were discharged in the past 24 hours. The death toll climbed to 16 after a 74-year-old man died of the virus earlier today.

Among the 779 confirmed patients staying in 14 hospitals, 34 are critical, 16 are serious and the rest are stable, said Chief Manager of Clinical Effectiveness and Technology Management, Linda Yu.

The occupancy rate of negative pressure beds and wards are 76.4 percent and 79.5 percent, respectively.