Hong Kong reports five newly confirmed COVID-19 cases

The five new cases include two females and three males aged between 1 and 79, Head of the CHP's Communicable Disease Branch Chuang Shuk-kwan said.

Among them, four persons had visited Paraguay, Britain, Argentina and Indonesia during their incubation periods. Chuang said that a 14-month-old baby is asymptomatic but was tested positive for the virus at a quarantine center after returning from Britain with her family.

The only patient without travel history, a 67-year-old man, is the close contact of a previously diagnosed patient.

It is the second day in a row that Hong Kong reported a single-digit increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in 24 hours.

Chuang said the decline in the number of new cases in recent days may be attributed to the ongoing public holiday during which public and private clinics have reduced medical services for collecting patients' specimen samples.
She reiterated that members of the public should maintain social distancing and personal hygiene.

According to Hong Kong's Hospital Authority, a total of 397 patients who had confirmed and probable COVID-19 infections have been discharged upon recovery and 616 patients are under isolation currently, while 604 diagnosed patients remain hospitalized, including 13 in critical condition and six in serious condition.