Dr. Cheung Shuk-kwan, director of the Communicable Disease Branch of the Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection, said on Jan. 4, that among the confirmed influenza cases last week, half of them did not survive. Hong Kong is expected to enter its peak flu season as early as next week, and the activity of the COVID-19 pandemic has also increased significantly in recent days.
At the joint press conference by the Department of Health and the Hospital Authority, Dr. Cheung said that the rate of positive influenza virus tests and the influenza admission rate have continued to increase in the past few weeks. The influenza admission rate in public hospitals was 0.48, higher than the baseline level of 0.25; the latest laboratory monitoring showed a positive rate of 8.49, close to the baseline level of 9.21. Among them, influenza A virus H3 accounts for 79 percent, influenza B virus accounts for 13 percent, and the remaining 8 percent belongs to H1.
