HONG KONG, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong is ramping up prevention and control measures against rapidly increasing imported cases amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as its Centre of Health Protection (CHP) reported Friday 48 new COVID-19 cases, the biggest rise for a single day in Hong Kong.
As of 4 p.m. local time, 48 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 256 in Hong Kong, according to a daily press briefing held by the CHP on Friday afternoon.
The newly diagnosed patients, aged from four to 69 years old, include 23 females and 25 males, said Head of the CHP's Communicable Disease Branch Chuang Shuk-kwan.
Among them, 36 people had overseas travel history during the incubation period, including a four-year-old girl who had traveled to Britain with her father, some members of a same tour group to Canada, a female flight attendant who had been to Indonesia and Britain, an athlete who had been to Europe for training, and eight students who were studying in countries such as Britain, Canada and the United States.
The confirmed cases also include a domestic helper who developed symptoms of the disease after arriving in Hong Kong from the Philippines on March 12, and an Australian national who felt unwell during transfer at the Hong Kong airport and was sent to a hospital in Hong Kong.
Among the rest of the new patients, some are close contacts of previously diagnosed cases, and four are related to two chain fitness gyms.
A taxi driver is one of the few patients who had no travel history during the incubation period. Initial investigations show that the driver often picked up passengers at the airport. The CHP will trace possible close contacts of him, Chuang said.
Hong Kong has seen in recent days an increasing number of imported COVID-19 cases as many travelers returned from overseas amid the global pandemic.
The CHP and public health experts have repeatedly warned that the surging imported cases may raise the risk of outbreaks in the local community.
Gabriel Leung, professor for public health medicine of the University of Hong Kong, warned on Friday that with the influx of inbound travelers from overseas, Hong Kong is currently at the highest risk since the outbreak began.
The research by Leung's team showed that the reproductive rate of the virus has grown remarkably, he said, warning that the influx could spark a new wave of infections and lead to more local clusters, and urging Hong Kong residents to stay "extra vigilant".
With a large number of people expected to arrive at the Hong Kong International Airport from overseas in the coming days, two temporary test centers were established at the AsiaWorld-Expo and the North Lantau Hospital near the airport, and were put into use on Friday morning.
Starting from Friday, people arriving in Hong Kong with upper respiratory symptoms will be sent to the test centers to receive viral tests and wait for the laboratory results.
A spokesperson of Hong Kong's Hospital Authority (HA) said the HA will deploy healthcare staff to the temporary test centers to collect the specimens and arrange the transfer of patients with positive test results to public hospitals for isolation and treatment.
Those who have negative test results can return to their residence and undergo home quarantine for 14 days.
Hong Kong has expanded the compulsory quarantine measures to cover on all persons arriving from overseas on Thursday. A string of strengthened entry health quarantine measures, including requiring all the inbound travelers under home quarantine to wear monitoring wristbands and conducting virus testing for some of the travelers, were also introduced.
Linda Yu, chief manager of Hong Kong's Hospital Authority, said at the briefing that as of 3 p.m. local time 33 specimens have been collected from inbound travelers at the test centers and sent to laboratory for tests.
According to office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government's Chief Information Officer, from Thursday to Friday noon, over 7,400 monitoring wristbands in supporting the compulsory quarantine measures were distributed to persons arriving at the Hong Kong International Airport to use in pair with the "StayHomeSafe" mobile app.
