A man reads a newspaper while sitting on a promenade that runs along Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong on Dec 14, 2020. (ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong recorded 74 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, including 25 cases of unknown origin, bringing the city’s total tally to 8152.

In a press briefing on Sunday afternoon, Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection also said that health authorities would continue to monitor the situation regarding the new virus strain that UK officials said was more infectious.

Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection also said that health authorities would continue to monitor the situation regarding the new virus strain that UK officials said was more infectious

“We have to ask our microbiologists in Hong Kong whether we have seen such imported virus. We will continue to monitor the situation,” Chuang said.

UK health officials earlier raised the alarm about a variant of the coronavirus that’s spreading quickly across London and southeast England.

Chuang said Sunday’s new infections in HK included four imported cases and 70 local infections. There were fifty patients who tested preliminarily positive, she added.   

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Chuang said four of the new cases were linked to the Yata supermarket cluster in Sha Tin, one to the Tseung Kwan o-Lam Tin tunnel construction cluster, two to the Glow Salon & Spa cluster in Central.

She said a new case was also detected in a elderly care home in Lam Tin and so its staff members and 23 residents would be quarantine.    

Two staff members in a clinic in Mong Kok also tested positive after they came into contact with a confirmed male patient who had a CT scan on Dec 7.

The two staff members were wearing personal protective equipment. One of them assisted the patient when he took medicine for his accelerated heart rate, during which he took off his face mask. The other infected staff member took care of the patient while he was resting.      

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According to the Hospital Authority, there were 1,081 patients being treated in 23 hospitals and the Asia World Expo treatment center, including 64 patients in critical condition and 67 in serious condition.

With inputs from Bloomberg