A customer receives a temperature check at a restaurant in Hong Kong, March 30, 2020. (VINCENT YU / AP)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong on Tuesday recorded 32 new cases of novel coronavirus infections, bringing the tally to 714.

Twenty-four of the new patients, aged 11 to 86, had recently traveled overseas. Thirteen of them were students studying overseas.

Among the eight without a recent travel history, four are among a group of seven who went to karaoke bar Red MR in Tsim Sha Tsui on March 24. One of the seven was confirmed infected on Monday. 

Four new patients are among a group of seven who went to karaoke bar Red MR in Tsim Sha Tsui on March 24

Two other people will be sent to a quarantine center, said Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Communicable Disease Branch of the Centre for Health Protection, at a media briefing.

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Two more people were infected in incidents related to bars in Lan Kwai Fong and Tsim Sha Tsui.

Meanwhile, four other COVID-19 patients were released from the hospital, bringing the total number of recoveries to 127.

There are 1,016 isolation beds in the city, and 66 percent of them are occupied, Lau Ka-hin, Hospital Authority chief manager (quality and standards), said at the briefing.

As of 3 pm on Tuesday, 12 new patients were waiting to be admitted to public hospitals.

Also at the briefing, Wong Ka-hing, controller of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health, said that since January, Hong Kong has conducted about 90,000 novel coronavirus tests — an average of 12,000 tests per 1 million people.

Hong Kong is likely to have the highest test rate in Asia and definitely among the highest in the world, Wong said.

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He said the city now has about 1,700 units at quarantine centers. When the capacity is nearly full, the authorities will consider allowing some people to be quarantined for only 10 days at the center, and the remaining four days at home. The health authorities will also evaluate whether relevant patients’ household environment is suitable for a four-day home quarantine, Wong said.

Currently, only 20 to 30 percent of the city’s quarantine units are unoccupied.

Those to be put under home quarantine should be asymptomatic and low-risk, Wong added.

With the Junior Police Call Permanent Activity Center administered by Hong Kong police being converted into a quarantine center and handed over to the Department, the city currently has four quarantine centers with nearly 1,700 units in total, Wong said, adding that the HKSAR government will continue to increase the capacity of quarantine facilities.  

With Xinhua inputs