Hong Kong recorded 17,236 positive rapid test reports for Covid-19 in the first six hours after the government launched the online self-reporting system.
After deducting duplicates and cases that had been previously confirmed, the total number of valid reports stood at 14,715, Albert Au, the Center for Health Protection’s senior physician and health officer, said during the daily Covid-19 briefing. 19 Tuesday.
Of the approximately 14,000 patients, 2,018 had completed the procedure by submitting their copy of HK ID card and a photo of their positive rapid antigen test (RAT) via an SMS link sent to them at midnight.
The online reporting system went live at 6 p.m. Monday, allowing people to notify health authorities if they test positive for Covid-19 using a RAT.
Au said new cases registered through the system would be included in Wednesday’s tally. Hong Kong on Tuesday confirmed 28,475 new Covid-19 infections and another 160 deaths in public hospitals in the past 24 hours.
Downward trend in daily cases
The city has seen a drop in its daily number of Covid-19 cases over the past few days. Last week, authorities reported three consecutive days of around 50,000 new infections.
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“[It’s] not like early February when the number of confirmed cases surged,” Au said, adding that the drop in numbers could be attributed to public cooperation with social distancing measures.
He added that the outbreak still needed to be watched “very carefully”, encouraging members of the public to report positive results from their rapid tests so authorities could get a clearer picture of the outbreak.
Gabriel Leung, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, says that based on the most recent modeling, the fifth wave peaked last week and daily infections are expected to fall below 1,000 by the end of April.
