Hong Kong reports 14,373 new COVID cases, 22 deaths

On December 8, 2022, people attended an outdoor PCR testing center in Hong Kong. Undersecretary for Health Libby Lee said cases were on the rise, with no signs of abating, as the city recorded 14,373 new infections.

The last time the number of new cases exceeded 14,000 was on March 22, when 14,152 infections were recorded. The city had 11,981 new infections and 22 deaths on Wednesday.

In contrast to the previous seven days from Nov 25 to Dec 1, the city s COVID cases grew by 25.5 percent over the past seven days, of which local infections rose 26.2 percent and imported cases increased 16.1 percent, Albert Au, the principal medical and health officer of the Communicable Disease Branch of the Centre for Health Protection, said at the same time.

HK sees nearly 12 k new COVID 19 cases, 22 deaths and more COVID 19 deaths.

The number of deaths went up by 12.2 percent, Au said, as well as the number of elderly care homes with infections rose by 28 percent, while care homes for people with disabilities the disabled had cases jumped 33 percent.

Over 90 percent of the 3,200 COVID patients treated in public hospitals were elderly, according to Larry Lee, chief executive of the Integrated Clinical Services of the Hospital Authority.

96 percent of the COVID-related deaths involved senior citizens aged 60 or above, according to Lee, who stressed the importance of getting vaccinated.

Of the new cases on Thursday, 13,575 were local infections, while 798 were imported cases, according to the CHP.

The imported cases included 415 detected at the Hong Kong International Airport, 287 during days 1 to 3 of their arrival in Hong Kong and the remaining 96 from the fourth to seventh days.

READ MORE: HK COVID caseload crosses 10 K mark as 13 dies again.

As of Thursday, the Public Health Laboratory Services Branch PHLSB had identified 226 cases of sub-lineage XBB, six of XBD, eight of BA. There were 2, seven of whom had a BA. 4.6, 13 of BF. There were 117 cases of sub-lineage XBB, 18 of XBD, one of BA. There were 2, five of BF. There were also 1.1 detected among local cases.

Among the specimens received by the PHLSB for verification testing of local cases, about 65.56 percent of the seven-day moving average were related to the BA. The CHP said that the city s deaths brought the city's death toll to 10,678 during the current fifth wave of infections.