Amid four new local cases, HKU experts warned of more virus clusters

03/06/2020

Professor Gabriel Leung and Professor Benjamin Cowling at the press conference (HKU Med)

Public health experts from the University of Hong Kong warned of the risk of another wave of coronavirus outbreak in Hong Kong as four new locally transmitted cases were reported at Lek Yuen Estate in Sha Tin on Tuesday.

Professor Gabriel Leung, dean of the faculty of medicine from HKU, noted the effective reproductive number of local cases had surged to 1.86, meaning each patient can transmit the virus to 1.86 people in Hong Kong.

He said more community clusters may appear in the coming one or three weeks and all border control and social-distancing measures should not be relaxed.

Leung urged all public and private institutes to run more than 10,000 virus tests each day, especially towards high-risk groups such as employees of the retail and transport industries.