Latest situations of COVID-19 (Dec 8, Thursday)

TOPLINE
- 11,981 new cases [3,837 cases by nucleic acid tests (640 imported + 3,197 locally acquired); 8,144 cases by rapid antigen tests (63 imported + 8,081 locally acquired)]
- As at Dec 7, 248, 645, 2,262 and 6,102 received their first, second, third and fourth dose of vaccine respectively; a cumulative total of 20,059,339 doses have been administered

- new cases tested positive by nucleic acid tests: 3,837 (640 imported + 3,197 locally acquired)
- total cases tested positive by nucleic acid tests: 1,072,500
- new cases tested positive by rapid antigen tests: 8,144 (63 imported + 8,081 locally acquired)
- total cases tested positive by rapid antigen tests: 1,116,917
- deaths: 10,864 [during the fifth wave (since December 31, 2021): 10,651]

14-day rolling sitrep of new cases (most recent figure first, in bracket: “local cases / imported cases”)
- 11,981 ( 11,278 / 703 ); 9,952 ( 9,227 / 725 ); 9,508 ( 8,843 / 665 ); 9,487 ( 8,830 / 657 ); 10,111 ( 9,614 / 497 ); 9,996 ( 9,359 / 637 ); 10,137 ( 9,531 / 606 ); 8,810 ( 8,153 / 657 ); 7,547 ( 6,957 / 590 ); 7,793 ( 7,188 / 605 ); 8,033 ( 7,530 / 503 ); 8,874 ( 8,365 / 509 ); 8,878 ( 8,316 / 562 ); 9,219 ( 8,500 / 719 )

Provisional analysis of the first 10,531 reported death cases in the 5th wave:
- Vaccination history
　- Received 4 doses (reached 14 days): 0.41%
　- Received 3 doses (reached 14 days): 5%
　- Received 2 doses (reached 14 days): 13%
　- Received 1 dose (reached 14 days): 15%
　- Unvaccinated: 67%
- Over 95% fatal cases were elderly aged 60 years or above; 51% were residential care home residents; 91% were with known chronic diseases
- Receiving 3 doses of any vaccines greatly reduces death risk especially in the older age group

- As at Dec 7:
* 248 persons received their first dose of vaccine; a cumulative total of
6,902,453 persons have received their first vaccine dose, making up 94.5% of the population aged 3 or above
* 645 persons received their second dose of vaccine; a cumulative total of 6,774,405 persons have received their second vaccine dose, making up 92.9% of the population aged 3 or above
* 2,262 persons received their third dose of vaccine; a cumulative total of 5,750,080 persons have received their third vaccine dose, making up 82.6% of the population aged 12 or above
* 6,102 persons received their fourth dose of vaccine; a cumulative total of 632,401 persons have received their fourth vaccine dose
- a total of 20,059,339 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered for members of the public

So far, the Expert Committee had assessed these 120 death cases and concluded that 115 death cases had no causal relationship with vaccination, one case of which causal relationship with vaccination could not be established, preliminarily considered that three cases were not associated with vaccination, and one case pending further information for assessment. The Expert Committee considered there is no unusual pattern identified so far, and it will continue to closely monitor the situation and collect data for assessment.

The Government announced the following vaccination arrangements on December 7:
(i) Starting from December 9, persons aged 18 or above may make appointments for receiving the BioNTech bivalent vaccine as the third dose (or the second dose for recovered persons); and
(ii) Starting from December 16, for persons aged 18 or above and who had received four doses (or recovered adults who had received the third dose and had received the last dose or recovered for more than six months), if they choose to receive an additional dose of vaccine for better protection, they may make appointments for receiving the fifth dose (or the fourth dose for recovered persons). Relevant persons may choose to receive the Sinovac, the BioNTech ancestral strain vaccine or the BioNTech bivalent vaccine.

The new Yuen Long CVS, located at the open space outside the Yuen Long Leisure and Cultural Building, will replace the Community Vaccination Centre situated at the arena of the Yuen Long Sports Centre. The Yuen Long CVS will enhance the service and concurrently provide vaccination service with the Sinvoac vaccine (for persons aged 6 months or above), the BioNTech ancestral strain vaccine (for persons aged 12 or above), and the BioNTech bivalent vaccine (as a booster for eligible persons). Persons aged 60 or above can collect same-day tickets at the CVS for vaccination without prior booking. Meanwhile, the three CVCs located in the Yuen Long Sports Centre, the Kwun Chung Sports Centre and the Yuen Wo Road Sports Centre will operate until noon on December 15 and be closed afterwards.

The Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, visited United Christian Hospital, Caritas Medical Centre and Prince of Wales Hospital on December 7 to get a better grasp of the contingency measures put in place by public hospitals in response to COVID-19 and the winter service surge. He also expressed his gratitude to the frontline healthcare staff for their efforts and contributions.

According to the World Health Organization, we have yet to get evidence on the specific duration of infection-derived immunity against Omicron, but based on prior variants, immunity is expected to persist at least 90 days.