Hong Kong reports 3 new imported COVID-19 cases

HONG KONG, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) — Hong Kong’s Center for Health Protection (CHP) reported three new imported cases of COVID-19 on Friday, taking the total tally of confirmed cases in the financial hub to 12,448.

The newly reported cases all involved mutant strains. A total of 50 cases have been reported in the past 14 days and all were imported, according to the CHP.

In view of the recent global development of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government announced on Thursday that boarding and quarantine requirements for inbound travelers from Finland, Ghana, South Korea, Norway and Saudi Arabia will be tightened from midnight on Dec. 5, while all transit passengers from overseas places and China’s Taiwan will be required to present negative nucleic acid test results when boarding a flight for Hong Kong from midnight on Dec. 8.

Since the launch of the government inoculation program in late February, around 4.76 million people, or 70.7 percent of the eligible population, have taken at least one shot of the vaccine, while around 4.54 million, or 67.4 percent, are fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, a total of 179,790 people have taken the booster shot in Hong Kong as of 7:00 p.m. local time Thursday.

The HKSAR government expects the third-dose vaccination would cover 1.86 million people.  Enditem