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Sammy Heung

Hong Kong has recorded Covid-19 outbreaks in care homes and hospital wards after a worldwide surge in cases and health experts have appealed for high-risk groups to get their booster jabs up-to-date.
Professor Lau Yu-lung, the chairman of the Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases, said on Saturday that health surveillance figures showed Covid-19 cases had been on the rise in recent weeks.
“The outbreaks in care homes are worrying,” Lau said on a radio programme. “There were seven outbreaks [from the end of July to early August] with 60 patients.”
The Centre for Health Protection said another four outbreaks involving 29 cases were recorded at care homes for the elderly and other institutions between August 4 and 7.
The government last week also reported that 20 patients aged 47 to 94 in the infirmary unit at Grantham Hospital in Aberdeen had tested positive for the coronavirus since July 31.
Lau said crowded living conditions and poor air circulation could be behind the outbreaks.
“Long-term hospitalisation is a situation where a lot of people are living very densely packed, probably in an enclosed space for a long period of time,” he added.
“As the weather is hot now, the hospitals have turned on the air conditioners with windows and doors closed.
“The air circulation and the standards for air change must be handled carefully.”
Lau said patients in long-term hospitalisation and people with chronic illnesses should get Covid-19 boosters and the public should maintain good personal hygiene.
The centre said on Thursday that the latest surveillance information, recorded between July 28 and August 3, showed that incidences of the virus had continued to increase since June.
Among the 7,710 respiratory specimens collected by the centre, 699 tested positive for Covid-19 compared with 709 the week before.
The number of severe coronavirus cases, including fatal ones, reached 19 over the same period, compared with 20 during the previous seven-day period.
Lau said he believed the results for the centre’s viral load testing for sewage water had already peaked, dropping from 537,000 copies per litre between July 21 and 27 to 450,000 a week later.
He added the World Health Organization had reported 45,000 Covid-19 cases in Europe over the past seven days, compared with 4,500 in the western Pacific region, which includes Hong Kong.

“The population in the western Pacific region is much larger than Europe,” he said.
“It shows that the Covid-19 pandemic situation in Europe is far worse than that of Hong Kong.”
Dr Mike Kwan Yat-wah, an honorary clinical associate professor in the University of Hong Kong’s department of paediatrics and adolescent medicine, said he had observed three cases of coronavirus-linked multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS) in children from different hospitals in the past two to three weeks.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said MIS was a rare but serious condition associated with Covid-19 which caused inflammation in internal and external body parts, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes and the gastrointestinal tract.
It noted the main risk factor for the syndrome was Covid-19 infection, but many affected children had no or few symptoms of the coronavirus.
The institution said trends in MIS cases usually followed Covid-19 infections, with peaks often following that of Covid cases by about a month.
Kwan said the cases in Hong Kong were mostly patients aged eight to 10, with the condition triggered by Covid-19.
“Previously, there were 80 to 90 cases found in Hong Kong and it had been quiet for a long time,” he told the same radio programme.
“But in the recent two to three weeks, three cases were reported in different hospitals including public and private ones. You can say it is quite unusual.”
Kwan said children affected by the syndrome had fevers that persisted and also suffered from rashes, red eyes and lips, inflammation in organs, including the liver, as well as an increased inflammation levels in blood.
Parents should seek medical help for children as soon as possible if they were affected by the syndrome, he said.
Kwan warned that delayed treatment could lead to the development of heart problems.


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News

Hong Kong

Health & Environment

Health experts say seven outbreaks involving 60 patients logged between late July and early August at local care homes, with more recorded later


Health experts say seven Covid-19 outbreaks involving 60 patients logged between late July and early August at local care homes, with more recorded later.


Coronavirus Hong Kong

The University of Hong Kong