Group infections of flu, Covid-19 logged

Three groups have contracted the flu or Covid-19 in the past few days and residents are reminded to be vigilant, the Health Bureau (SSM) has warned.

A group of six Primary 2 students at the Santa Rosa de Lima Secondary School in Nam Van have been diagnosed with Covid-19. They all developed symptoms, such as fever and coughs, on Jan. 17. Some of their Covid-19 tests yielded positive results. The SSM has preliminarily identified it as a case of serial infection.

As of statement time, no severe cases or complications have been confirmed among this group. Fellow students and staff at the same school will be monitored, the SSM said.

Meanwhile, a group of 13 students from Primary 1 and Primary 4 levels at Choi Kou Middle School have been diagnosed with a flu-like disease. On Jan. 13, symptoms started developing. As of statement time, no severity or complications have been discovered.

However, on Jan. 18, four infants from a Fujianese kindergarten in Iao Hon District were diagnosed with the onset of flu-like diseases. As of statement time, no severe cases or complications have been logged.

Corresponding tactics have been taken at the latter two schools.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, Professor Ivan Hung Fan Ngai, Chair of Infectious Diseases at the Department of Medicine of The University of Hong Kong (HKU), has been cited by the press in Hong Kong as warning about the arrival of the Covid-19 peak, which he said has occurred. He believed that this peak would linger for a longer time, supposedly over Chinese New Year.

The academic said 80% of the hospitalized upper respiratory tract infection patients at the Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong are severe Covid-19 patients, with most of them being the elderly or the chronically ill. He said only a handful of patients were hospitalized for flu.

Hung also estimated the flu peak will only arrive after Chinese New Year.

Dr Mike Kwan Yat Wah, Honorary Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine of the HKU, was cited by the Hong Kong press as warning that younger patients “have a probability” of developing acute complications after contracting SARS-CoV-2.

Also warning about the high mortality rate of Covid-19 in elderly patients, the doctor reminded people to be vigilant against the “destructive consequences” that Covid-19 may bring about.

Both Hong Kong doctors and the Macau SSM suggest people get vaccinated.