Hong Kong on Tuesday recorded 4,890 new local Covid cases and 11 new deaths.

There were also 272 imported infections.

Health officials said 1,813 patients were being treated at hospital, including nine under intensive care.

A chief manager at the Hospital Authority, Lau Ka-hin, said the condition of a toddler who was admitted for intensive care the day before after suffering from a complication called croup has improved.

The 27-month-old boy is now in stable condition.

Among the latest deaths was an 88-year-old woman who tested positive on July 23 and was subsequently prescribed anti-Covid drugs.

She tested negative on August 2 via rapid antigen tests.

But she still experienced symptoms afterwards, so she sought treatment at a private hospital on August 5 and was found to still contain the virus.

The patient was then transferred to the accident and emergency department of Ruttonjee Hospital where she died on Monday.

In light of the case, Lau called on Covid patients who are aged 60 or above to see a doctor even if they have no or mild symptoms and to get anti-Covid medication.

He added people who still experience symptoms after they finish the medication should see a doctor again.

Meanwhile, Lau noted that more than 200 Covid patients have been admitted to hospital each day in the past week, and said non-emergency services will be affected if the trend continues.

“How can we arrange the best for the increasing number of patients admitted to the hospital? We have to re-adjust our services. We try to postpone some services that the patients may not be affected too much, for example some elective surgery, some elective endoscopy as well as some elective radiological examination.”

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USEFUL LINKS
General Covid-19 situation: https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/
Community Clinics for Covid-19 patients: https://bit.ly/3a4BZFE
RAT reporting platform: https://www.chp.gov.hk/ratp/
Vaccination programme: https://www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/sen/
Vaccination pass scheme: https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/vaccine-pass.html
Hotline for Covid-positive patients: 1836 115