#15,353
Considering their proximity to Mainland China, and the early arrival of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to the SAR, Hong Kong has done a remarkable job keeping COVID-19 at bay. Six months into the crisis, and this city of 7 million has seen fewer than 1470 cases, and more than half of those were imported.
By taking action early (see A Tale of Two Outbreaks: Hong Kong & Italy), managed to avoid the rampant community spread we've seen across much of the world. Their daily cases counts climbed slowly at first - gained some momentum in March - and slowed again in April (see chart below).
But Hong Kong is an international city, and more than 850 (62%) of their cases have been imported. As a result, the virus (including the newer `European' variant) has been continually reintroduced into the city.
Two days ago (July 7th), HK reported:
There were 14 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in Hong Kong in 2019, nine were local cases and five were imported from abroad. In the local case, four diagnosed patients were restaurant customers or employees.
Yesterday, Hong Kong's CHP reported:
The Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health announced that 24 new cases of coronavirus in 2019 have been confirmed in Hong Kong , 19 local cases and five imported cases. Among the local cases, the source of the five cases is unknown, and the rest mostly involve restaurant groups and nursing centers.
Today, Hong Kong reported 42 new cases, 34 of which are locally acquired (per News Channel Asia Report). This 3-day surge comes after 3 weeks of only reporting imported cases.
This trend of suddenly seeing many more locally acquired cases than imported ones is raising concerns that the virus is now spreading widely in the community just weeks after HK relaxed some of their restrictions (see CNN report Authorities in Hong Kong warn of potential 'exponential growth' in coronavirus cases.)
There are expectations that the HK government will reinstate some of those recently relaxed restrictions in order to combat this surge.
Meanwhile, Japan - which spent most of the month of June reporting daily cases in the double digits - has reported a record number of cases in Tokyo over the past 24 hours, and is seeing spikes in other prefectures as well.
This from today's Japan Times.
Tokyo confirms record 224 coronavirus cases as other areas see spikes
JUL 9, 2020
Tokyo confirmed 224 COVID-19 cases on Thursday, a record high for single day figures, topping 200 for the first time since April 17.
Thursday’s total is the second time for daily figures to top 200. The previous high was 206.
