Hong Kong's health authority confirms 5 more Omicron variant cases

HONG KONG, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) confirmed five additional cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on Monday.

The cases, which were included in the daily cases recorded on Saturday and Sunday, involved four females and one male aged between 26 and 77.

So far, Hong Kong has identified 19 cases with the Omicron variant.

The CHP reported seven more imported cases of COVID-19 on Monday, taking the total tally of confirmed infections to 12,533.

Six of the imported cases involved mutant strains, while the viral load of the remaining case is insufficient for mutation tests. The patients comprise five males and two females, aged 18 to 78.

A total of 65 cases have been reported in the past 14 days and all were imported, according to the CHP.

Since the launch of the government inoculation program in late February, about 4.83 million people, or 71.8 percent of the eligible population, have taken at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, while over 4.6 million people, or 68.4 percent, are fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, a total of 308,101 people in Hong Kong have taken their booster shot as of 8:00 p.m. local time Sunday.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government expects the third-dose vaccination to cover about 1.86 million people.