Hong Kong on Tuesday recorded 7,218 new Covid cases, including 151 imported infections.

Ten more chronically ill patients – aged between 52 and 95 – have died with Covid in the previous day.

The Hospital Authority said 2,885 Covid patients are being treated in public hospitals. 52 of them are in critical condition, with 13 patients under intensive care.

It added that the condition of a 10 year old boy who was under intensive care has improved.

The patient, who also suffers from epilepsy, could breathe on his own and regained consciousness.

Albert Au from the Centre for Health Protection said while the daily caseload has dropped in the past few days, officials still need to monitor the situation for a couple more weeks before determining whether the Covid situation has eased.

"The numbers have indeed fallen in the past three, four days. But people need to pay attention that the caseload right now is around 7,000 to 8,000, it's still an extremely high level," he said.

"When you compare the numbers with that in May, on average we had 200 to 300 cases a day back then. We can say the situation right now is still very severe."

Responding to a question on why inbound travellers from the mainland are not required to be inoculated to get a temporary vaccine pass, Au said the two-jab requirement is currently for locals and people from overseas, but not those who come from the mainland, Macau and Taiwan.

He stressed that considering that Covid vaccines have been widely used around the world, the Health Bureau is considering allowing a temporary vaccine pass for all visitors.

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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