Hong Kong reports 131 new COVID-19 cases

Hong Kong recorded 131 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours on Friday, taking the total tally of infections to 14,715, according to data from the Center for Health Protection.

The newly reported cases consist of one imported case and 130 local cases, with 71 cases epidemiologically linked with previous cases.

Carrie Lam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, on Friday announced a series of updated anti-epidemic measures that will come into effect in the near future.

The measures include the re-establishment of a temporary air-inflated laboratory to support an expanded scale of COVID-19 testing, the launch of the sixth round of anti-epidemic fund, and the implementation of the vaccine pass and universal rapid antigen test in Hong Kong.

Since the start of a mass inoculation program in February last year, about 5.37 million people, or 79.8 percent of the eligible population in Hong Kong, have taken at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, while over 4.83 million, or 71.8 percent of the eligible population, have taken two doses.

Meanwhile, 990,925 people in Hong Kong have taken their third booster shot as of 8:00 p.m. local time (1200 GMT) Friday. (ANI/Xinhua)

( With inputs from ANI )