Serene Ho (center) watches her newly adopted dog Pepper (left) in a dog park at Kai Tak Runway Park in Hong Kong on April 11, 2020. (ISAAC LAWRENCE / AFP)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong reported on Monday a single-digit daily increase in the number of COVID-19 cases for the second day in a row. 

The five new cases have brought the city’s total to 1,009

The five new cases have brought the city’s total to 1,009. 

Of the latest cases, five patients are Hong Kong residents returning variously from South America, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom. One of the patients is a 14-month-old baby who returned to Hong Kong from the UK. Earlier on Saturday, a domestic helper traveling with the toddler had been diagnosed with the virus.

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Another patient, a 67-year-old man, is the father of a 23-year-old patient who tested positive on April 5.

At a daily press briefing, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Communicable Disease Branch of the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health, mentioned that because most private clinics were closed during the four-day Easter holidays, fewer people went to see doctors or submitted samples for testing. It could be one of the reasons for the low daily count. 

Another 37 patients were discharged from hospitals on Monday, taking the total number of recovered patients in the city to 360 even as 604 coronavirus patients are receiving treatment in hospitals.

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