Pedestrians wear face masks as a precautionary measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus as they walk across a road in Hong Kong on May 14, 2020. (ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) reported on Thursday six more COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of confirmed cases in Hong Kong to 1,099.

One new local case invovled a 72-year-old man who lived in the building in Sha Tin of the New Territories where six local infections have been found earlier

Five new cases were imported, involving five males aged 15 to 53, who came back to Hong Kong via Malaysia from Bangladesh on Wednesday, head of the CHP's Communicable Disease Branch Chuang Shuk-kwan told a press briefing.

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Apart from the five imported cases, Chuang said that there is one confirmed local case involving a 72-year-old man who lived in the building in Sha Tin of the New Territories where six local infections have been found earlier. All of them lived in flat No. 10 and No. 12.

For safety reasons, the CHP decided to evacuate all the residents of flat No. 10 and No. 12 of that building. Those who do not have symptoms will be sent to a quarantine center.

Under Secretary for the Environment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government Tse Chin-wan said that the infections from the building were most likely to be caused by environmental factors, including contact transmission at the building entrance and mail boxes.

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According to Hong Kong's Hospital Authority, there are 48 COVID-19 patients currently in hospital in Hong Kong, with two in critical condition. A total of 1,041 confirmed and suspected patients have been discharged so far.