Health Times reporter Tan Qixin
According to the latest epidemic data released by the Centre for Health Protection of the Hong Kong Department of Health, Hong Kong added 1,514 new positive cases of COVID-19 on February 12, with 1,500 preliminarily confirmed cases, and the number of confirmed cases in a single day reached a new high. So far, the cumulative number of positive test cases in Hong Kong has reached 21,633.
"The most severe battle with the virus in more than two years is currently underway, and it is expected that the number of infections will continue to rise in the short term in the future, reminding the public not to despise the Omicron variant virus, depending on the development of the epidemic, and not to rule out the adoption of more stringent social distancing measures, such as a larger containment." Xu Lejian, director of the Centre for Health Protection of the Hong Kong Department of Health, said at a press conference.
The Maoquan Building in Shuiquan'ao Village was enclosed, and residents lined up to receive supplies. The image comes from Wen Wei Po.
How is virus traceability progressing?
Looking back at the current wave of the outbreak, the large-scale outbreak of the Kwai Chung Estate cluster is one of the main sources.
The ultimate source of the outbreak in Kwai Chung Village came from a Pakistani woman infected with the Omicron variant virus during the quarantine at Silka Seaview Hotel, Yau Ma Tei. According to the circulation information, she returned to her home in Dong Man Lou, Tai Hang Dong Village, after the end of quarantine, to pass the virus to her husband and children, who went to the garbage house of Yi Kui Lou on January 13 to collect waste and sell it in Nanchang Street, causing the virus to spread rapidly in Kwai Chung Village.
According to the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Kwai Chung Village is the most populous PUBLIC housing estate in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Government immediately carried out a "containment" of some buildings in Kwai Chung Estate for several days, but failed to prevent the spread of some cases. Cases of unknown origin are on the rise, and the infected people are spread across many places in the New Territories in Kowloon, such as Ho Man Tin, Mong Kok, Tin Shui Wai, etc., and the industries involved are also widely distributed, including security guards, maintenance workers, foreign domestic workers, etc.
Entering February, the number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong continued to run at a high level. According to the announcement of the Hong Kong Department of Health, since February 1, there have been more than 100 new cases in a single day, refreshing the record of new cases in a single day. On February 9, the number of new confirmed cases in Hong Kong exceeded 1,000 for the first time, reaching 1,161, and from February 10 to 12, the number of new confirmed cases in a single day was 986, 1,325 and 1,514 respectively.
Jin Dongyan, a professor of virology at the School of Biomedical Sciences of the University of Hong Kong, told reporters that one of the main reasons for the surge in the epidemic in Hong Kong is that the epidemic is mainly caused by the Aomi Kejung subtype variant BA.2, which is highly contagious and often spreads rapidly unconsciously. Studies have shown that the transmigration of the subtype of Omikejong, BA.2, may be 1.5 to 2 times more transmissible than that of the original Omikeron strain.
"The introduction of the BA.2 strain is very challenging for us, and the current epidemic situation is grim. Outbreaks spilling over from the source are spreading in communities, and a number of infected small groups have formed new chains of community transmission. In the past, we were all able to walk ahead of the epidemic, and now the epidemic is moving faster than us, so we urgently need to take effective measures such as accurate population diversion to cut off transmission routes, strengthen vaccination and protect susceptible people, etc. to curb the epidemic. Jin Dongyan said.
Is full staff testing initiated?
Hong Kong citizens do nucleic acid testing. Image from Xinhua News Agency.
As the number of confirmed cases continues to rise, as of now, there are more than 500 areas of mandatory testing in Hong Kong. According to a number of Hong Kong media reports, during the epidemic, the nucleic acid testing queues on the streets of Hong Kong have been queued up, and the waiting time of many sampling and testing stations in Various Districts of Hong Kong has become longer and longer.
According to the mandatory testing notice issued by Hong Kong, all co-resident members of close contacts of confirmed cases, buildings where cases involving a mutated virus strain are located, designated places, and high-risk or high-exposure groups are subject to compulsory quarantine.
The University of Hong Kong's working graduate student Kobayashi and the Health Times reporter revealed that at present, many schools of HKU and Baptist University have issued a notice of adopting online teaching throughout the semester, "Because of the increasingly serious trend of the epidemic in Hong Kong, many mainland students who want to return home need to provide a negative nucleic acid test certificate, and there are more and more people who are forced to check, and now even if they make an appointment, they need to queue for about 3-4 hours to be tested." ”
In this regard, on February 7, Xu Lejian, director of the Center for Health Protection, said at a press conference that he understood that the sampling and testing stations are now under pressure, and the authorities are planning to increase the number of daily testable stations from 100,000 to 200,000, and there are a large number of citizens waiting at sampling and testing stations in some places with many people. The Hong Kong Department of Health recommends that members of the public, apart from being tested at sampling stations, should also pay attention to their personal physical condition and seek medical attention from a doctor as soon as possible if they have upper respiratory tract discomfort.
For the current high demand for "compulsory national testing", Jin Dongyan believes that it is not realistic for Hong Kong to start full testing at present, which may cause a lot of waste of medical resources. "Compared with the national nucleic acid testing, for Hong Kong, the most urgent thing now is to find people with high infectivity with high viral volume among infected people through the method of rapid detection of antigens, carry out accurate triage isolation, and effectively cut off the source of infection; and for ordinary mild patients, the health department can isolate at home through guidance."
Jin Dongyan revealed that at present, the SAR government has adopted a method of widely distributing antigen detection reagents at the same time, encouraging the public to take the initiative to test at home and take the initiative to report, if the next supporting measures can keep up, it is expected to see the corresponding effect within 2 weeks.
Is there a risk of spillover from the spread of the outbreak?
According to the data on the official website of the Hong Kong Immigration Department, the Health Times reporter found that since entering February, the number of people leaving Hong Kong (entering Shenzhen) through the Shenzhen Bay Port from Hong Kong has risen day by day, and from February 2 to February 12, the number of people entering Shenzhen from Hong Kong in a single day is more than 1,000, of which February 8 is 2170 people in a single day.
On February 13, the Guangdong Provincial Health Commission reported that yesterday there was 1 new locally confirmed case, which was found in the routine nucleic acid testing of key populations in Shenzhen, and 19 new imported confirmed cases and 9 asymptomatic cases of infection, of which 15 were from Hong Kong, including 9 imported cases reported by Shenzhen, all from Hong Kong.
According to the circulation information, on February 12, Shenzhen found 4 confirmed cases of new crown pneumonia in the routine test of mainland transfer drivers of cross-border trucks in Hong Kong, and the recent trajectory involved the Jinshanghua connection point at the Wenjindu Port in Luohu, Shenzhen, the Pinghu White Mud Pit operation point in Longgang, and the return to their homes in Dongguan. Since February, 17 Hong Kong cross-border truck drivers have been positive.
Among the new imported cases, 9 confirmed cases from Hong Kong involved Shenzhen and 1 case in Foshan, and 4 asymptomatic infection cases involved Dongguan and 1 case in Foshan.
On February 9, the Port Office of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government issued a notice saying that recently, the number of inbound personnel at the Shenzhen Bay Port has increased significantly in consecutive days, the reservation of health stations has continued to be full, the isolation of the hotel is running at a high level, the ability to transfer resources is seriously exceeded, and some unbooked passengers are stranded at the scene. Hereby remind the majority of inbound passengers that they must consciously abide by the reservation rules of the health station, and do a good job in personal protection and health management throughout the process.
Previously, Shenzhen once again adjusted the frequency of nucleic acid testing for cross-border truck drivers in Guangdong and Hong Kong, requiring cross-border truck drivers in Guangdong and Hong Kong to uniformly adjust to holding a negative nucleic acid test certificate within 24 hours before entering the country.