This photo shows medical workers in protective gear stationed at the entrance of a community testing point in Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong, on Dec 28, 2020. (WANG SHEN / XINHUA)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong reported 53 confirmed COVID-19 infections as well as at least 40 preliminarily positive cases on Tuesday, as health authorities tightened mandatory testing rules for residential buildings.

The city’s total number of confirmed infections now stands at 8,724

Tuesday’s fresh cases included 50 locally transmitted ones, 14 of them of an unknown origin, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, said at a regular briefing.

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The city’s total number of confirmed infections now stands at 8,724. Two coronavirus-related deaths were recorded on Tuesday, pushing up the death toll to 143.

A 71-year-old woman with terminal diseases who was admitted on Sept 1, died at United Christian Hospital. A 59-year-old man with chronic illness, who was first admitted on Dec 6, succumbed at Eastern Hospital, according to Hospital Authority statements.

Three residents of Fung Chak House in Choi Wan (II) Estate, a public housing estate in Wong Tai Sin, tested preliminarily positive, deputy health chief Chui Tak-yi said at the briefing. 

Hong Kong saw 572 local cases from Dec 15 to 21, 33 percent of which remained untraceable. Over the past week, the city logged 398 local cases, the origin of 36 percent of which remained unknown

In all, 721 residents of the block got tested at mobile stations set up at the locality after a mandatory testing order was issued, Chui said. The order came Monday after the University of Hong Kong researchers announced they had identified four samples from the block’s sewage as positive.

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If two unlinked cases in different units are reported at the same building within a span of two weeks, all building residents will be subject to mandatory testing, Chui announced.

With the new testing requirement in place, Chuang said, residents of Ping Shek Estate Lam Shek House in Ngau Tau Kok, where people from three diferent units were found infected, will all be compulsorily tested.

A resident of Kowloon Bay Health Centre & Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Nursing Home, who didn't receive any visitor or hadn't ventured out in two months, was confirmed to be infected, Chuang said. Her 43 fellow residents would be quarantined amid concerns over a silent transmission at the care center, where a worker was found infected earlier.

Chuang said five more people, flying back from the United Kingdom between Dec 4 and 20, were found to have contracted a new coronavirus strain first reported in the UK and which was potentially more contagious. So far, a eight returnees have been found with the strain.

Hong Kong saw 572 local cases from Dec 15 to 21, 33 percent of which remained untraceable. Over the past week, the city logged 398 local cases, the origin of 36 percent of which remained unknown, Chui said citing data.

“The number of confirmed cases remains high, although the figures have slightly dipped recently. There has not been a consistent downward trend and the decrease rate is slower than that of the third wave of (COVID-19 infections). Therefore, the government believes it is necessary to expand testing programs,” said Chui.