Coronavirus: Hong Kong logs 5,020 cases, most in more than 4 months, while minister ‘encouraged’ by number of parents booking Sinovac shots for children
- Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung says she believes more people will sign their young children up for jabs in the coming days
- Authorities have lowered the age threshold for the Chinese-made Sinovac shot to children as young as six months
Health officials confirmed 5,020 new cases on Thursday, the most since 5,823 were recorded on April 1, and reported three more deaths related to the virus. Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, the head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable diseases branch, warned infections were expected to keep rising, pointing to a measure of the ability of the virus to spread.
“It has not peaked yet. University of Hong Kong researchers have put the latest effective reproductive rate of the virus at 1.28,” she said, referring to the estimated number of people each infected patient could pass the pathogen onto.
Chuang added the government would closely monitor the situation but refrain from tightening social-distancing rules for now.
Increasing vaccination coverage remains the government’s chief strategy for avoiding a repeat of the explosion of cases that overwhelmed hospitals in March, and it has been steadily lowering the eligibility age for the two types of Covid-19 shots available in the city, with the Chinese-made Sinovac jabs now offered to those as young as six months.
