An infectious disease expert on Friday called on Hongkongers to cut down on their social activities after officials warned that the daily number of new Covid cases could top 10,000 next week.

On an RTHK radio programme, Dr Leung Chi-chiu said hospitals will be under considerable pressure if this prediction proves to be accurate.

"Now there are up to 5,000 hospital beds [for Covid patients]. If we have, say, 14,000 cases a day, and every day around 500 are admitted to hospital for eight to nine days, our beds will be all occupied," he said.

Leung urged people to socialise less given the current Covid situation.

"The government's social distancing measures aren't immediately effective in slowing down virus transmissions in the community, they can only guide people to reduce high-risk contacts between families," he explained.

"So the best way at this stage is for everyone to have fewer risky cross-family gatherings. This not only reduces virus transmission and brings relief to our hospitals, but it also buys more time for high-risk people to get jabbed."