Daily cases surpass 10,000 for first time as Hong Kong adds 47 to Covid death tally

Hong Kong on Friday reported a record 10,010 new cases of Covid-19 as the city sees another 47 Covid related death.

A total of 21,979 Covid-19 notification cases were reported today, including the 10,010 confirmed cases.

The new "notification figure" adds up all the cases the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) has been informed about over the past 24 hours from both public and private laboratories, and covers both preliminary positive and confirmed cases.

Speaking at a press conference, the Hospital Authority’s Chief Manager of Quality and Standards, Dr. Lau Ka-hin, said the 47 deaths on Thursday involved 27 men and 20 women aged between 9 and 100.  

Four received two vaccine jabs, and one got a single jab. Forty-one of them were 65 or older, five of them were aged between 48 to 65, while the remaining one was a nine-year-old boy.  

Lau said the five aged between 48 to 65 mostly suffered from long-term illness and were bedridden.  

Meanwhile, another 12 people died earlier, but the cases were only reported today due to a backlog, pushing the city’s Covid death tally in the fifth wave to 314.  

Currently, 33 patients are in a critical condition, while 49 are in a serious condition, said Lau.  

So far, 420 care homes have reported Covid-19 infections. A total of 510 staffers and 1,500 residents were infected. There were 10 or more cases in 50 centers. Public hospitals were also strained by infections of 1,957 employees.  

Separately, Lau stressed among the confirmed patient brought to hospitals on Thursday, around 30 percent of them were asymptomatic or of mild symptoms and had caused 486 cases of delayed ambulance services.  

He called on citizens with no or mild symptoms to avoid calling an ambulance or visiting the Accident & Emergency Department in order to not impede emergency rescue work.

He also said the Li Ka Shing Foundation has agreed to donate HK$50 million for private hospitals to help treat public patients.