Hong Kong is nearing the peak of its influenza season, the Centre for Health Protection has said, urging residents to wear masks in crowded places and get flu and Covid booster shots.
The head of the centre’s Communicable Disease Branch, Chuang Shuk-kwan, said influenza indicators, including occupancy rates at public hospitals, had crossed the baseline activity threshold.
Chuang said the flu season would mainly be driven by Influenza A(H3) viruses. She said infections detected both in humans and in sewage were on the rise, though the number of severe or fatal cases remained stable.
Regarding Covid, the prevalence of the JN.1 variant has been increasing, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of local infections and rising to 27 per cent globally, Chuang said.
While the World Health Organization has said the variant is more transmissible, there was no evidence to suggest it posed additional public health risks, she said.
“There’s a high chance that we are entering the peak influenza season next week. At the same time, we have also seen a significant increase in Covid-19 activity,” Chuang said.
The XBB vaccine, which was rolled out in Hong Kong on December 14, also protects against the JN.1 variant, Chuang added.
She advised the public to get flu and Covid-19 booster shots as soon as possible, and to wear masks in crowded or poorly ventilated places.
Healthcare system under pressure
Director of Emergency Response and Programme Management Albert Au said the seasonal influenza vaccination programme has been running for about three months. More than 1.7 million vaccines had been administered as of January 1, a 21 per cent increase on the same period last year.
Coverage rates have increased in various groups, with nearly 770,000 doses administered to those aged 65 or above, up 15 per cent from last year, achieving a rate of 46.7 per cent.
Children aged six months to 18 years had received nearly 510,000 doses, a 39 per cent increase from the same period last year, with a coverage rate of 51.3 per cent.
Au attributed the increase in vaccine coverage for children to school outreach vaccination programmes, but said there was “still room for improvement” in rates for children and the elderly.
As of January 3, nearly 20,000 doses of the XBB Covid vaccine had been administered.
Larry Lee, chief executive of the city’s public hospital operator the Hospital Authority, said hospitals had increased beds and personnel on December 22.
The public healthcare system has seen an increase in the number of emergency department visits and internal medicine admissions since late December with a more pronounced uptick following the Christmas holiday.
The occupancy rate of internal medicine beds has risen from 96 per cent to over 115 per cent, while that of paediatric beds has increased from 75 per cent to about 90 per cent.
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