Hong Kong’s worst coronavirus outbreak is displaying indicators of coming underneath management as the town reported the bottom variety of new native infections since its resurgence started over a month in the past.
The Asian monetary hub reported 32 new native instances on Tuesday, a marked drop from the excessive double-digit tallies of the previous week. New infections have sustained a decline because the peak of 145 native instances on July 30 and have stayed beneath 100 every day since Aug. 3.
The drop is a reprieve for Hong Kong after a sudden flareup strained its health-care infrastructure and testing capability, and confined its residents largely to their houses — the smallest flats on this planet. Whereas the town’s complete outbreak of round 4,000 remains to be modest in comparison with many international locations, the resurgence arrived after months of near-zero neighborhood transmission and has affected older sufferers than earlier than, inflicting the demise toll to spike.
Nearly 90% of Covid-19 deaths in Hong Kong occurred previously month because the outbreak entered nursing and aged care houses — 48 deaths as of Monday, seven instances the toll of your entire first half of the yr.
The autumn in case numbers displays that tightened social distancing guidelines, which now ban public gatherings of extra of two folks and mandate masks in all public locations, are working to sluggish the virus’s unfold. The present measures, which additionally forbid eating in at eating places between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m., have been prolonged to Aug. 18.
China, which has tightened its political grip over the town, has despatched assist to spice up Hong Kong’s testing and hospitalization capability.
Chief Government Carrie Lam mentioned on Friday that Hong Kong will supply a free, voluntary virus take a look at to each resident as a method of figuring out asymptomatic carriers who’re spreading the virus silently. The power to check your entire metropolis of over 7 million, regardless of Hong Kong’s public establishments having the ability to course of solely 15,000 samples every day, displays China’s highly effective increase.