Hong Kong to suspend face-to-face classes of primary schools, kindergartens due to COVID-19

HONG KONG, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- All face-to-face classes of primary schools and kindergartens in Hong Kong will be suspended no later than Friday until schools' Chinese New Year holidays, the HKSAR government said on Tuesday.

The move came with a series of new anti-epidemic measures announced by Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Chief Executive Carrie Lam during a press conference.

Lam also said the HKSAR government will relaunch the anti-epidemic fund which aids industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including catering and traveling industries, and details will be unveiled on Friday.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong reported 21 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours on Tuesday, taking the total tally of confirmed cases to 12,980, data from the Center for Health Protection showed.

The newly reported cases consist of 13 imported cases and eight cases epidemiologically linked with imported cases.

Twenty of the cases involved mutant strains while the mutation test result of the remaining case is pending. The patients comprise nine males and 12 females, aged 16 to 63.

Hong Kong has recorded 171 asymptomatic cases since Jan. 1, and 360 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the past 14 days.

Since the launch of a mass inoculation program in February 2021, more than 5.05 million people, or 75 percent of the eligible population, have taken at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, while about 4.71 million, or 69.9 percent of the eligible population, have taken two doses.

Meanwhile, 564,716 people in Hong Kong have taken a booster shot as of Tuesday.