The number of new Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong remained steady on Friday, with health authorities reporting 324 infections, three more than the day before.

Of the new cases, 144 were identified by PCR tests and 180 took self-tests.

Albert Au from the Centre for Health Protection said 23 of the latest infections involved students and teaching staff from kindergartens, primary and secondary schools.

He said authorities have been looking into cases reported by schools since they resumed in-person classes, with seven schools each reporting two or more infections over the past week.

But he said they have not found any outbreak at schools.

“When we looked at the distribution of these cases, we found that they were all unrelated to one another. They were from different classes and did not know one another. And there’s no evidence suggesting that they had caught the virus at schools,” he said.

There were 29 new imported infections, involving people flying in from places such as the United Kingdom, Taiwan and Vietnam. Among them, 11 were detected at the airport, while the rest tested positive during hotel quarantine.

Officials also reported 11 more Covid-related deaths, including six people who died at public hospitals on Thursday.

In all, the fifth wave of the epidemic has seen more than 1.19 million infections and 9,131 deaths.
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