Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor (left) meets the press with Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee by her side in Hong Kong on Nov 24, 2020. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)

HONG KONG – Hong Kong will add five community coronavirus testing centers as early as this weekend to cope with a rapid climb in local infections, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced on Tuesday.

Carrie Lam also said social distancing rules will be tightened, including closure of indoor venues where off-mask activities are allowed

Hong Kong reported 188 new COVID-19 cases over the past week, a great leap from 24 cases recorded the week before, Lam said, citing health data. The count included 132 cases connected with a single infection cluster, the city’s biggest so far, related to dance studios.

"Unfortunately we see a rebound, so we need to do our best to keep it under control,” she said. Still, “we have to look at it globally because this is a global pandemic,” she said. “Hong Kong is not doing bad at all.”

ALSO READ: HK sees 73 new virus cases, including 50 in dance cluster

The city now has one testing center each in Quarry Bay, Yuen Long, Yau Ma Tei and Sha Tin.

In an effort to expand community testing arrangements, specimen collection bottles will be distributed at major railway stations and 121 post offices, Lam told reporters ahead of a weekly Executive Council meeting.

READ MORE: Tsuen Wan, Sai Kung & Tai Po get 7 sample collection sites

She also said social distancing rules will be tightened, including the closure of indoor venues where off-mask activities are allowed. 

“The direction is to cover this kind of premises because according to the WHO, we have to avoid three things: Avoid closed areas, avoid crowds - the ‘three C’s' - and avoid close contacts,” Lam told reporters. 

Speaking to reporters a day before her scheduled Policy Address on Wednesday, Lam said this year’s Policy Address and supplement would include 200 new measures, including those formulated after being discussed with the central and Guangdong governments during her trip to the mainland in early November.

Lam said that 95 percent of 700 measures announced in her past three addresses had been implemented or were in the process of being implemented.

With Bloomberg inputs