Health authorities said on Saturday it was difficult to predict whether infections would rise after the Mid-Autumn Festival, as Hong Kong again logged almost 10,000 new Covid infections for the day.

Officials reported 9,787 infections, including 185 imported cases.

They said almost 2,700 coronavirus patients were being treated in public hospitals, including 16 in intensive care.

Chuang Shuk-kwan, from the Centre for Health Protection (CHP), again urged the public to avoid Mid-Autumn Festival cross-family gatherings.

"If they do attend such gatherings, they should do a rapid antigen test (RAT) beforehand. If they test RAT positive, they should declare the result and stay away from such gatherings. If they develop symptoms, and even if they have a RAT negative result, they could have been infected, and it's just (that) the RAT fails to pick up the infection, so they should still stay away from gatherings," Chuang said.

"It's hard to say whether there will be further rises in daily infections after the Mid-Autumn Festival. That's not something we wish to see."

Eight more Covid patients have died. The youngest was a chronically ill 21-year-old man.
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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