A large number of people flooded into the Lok Ma Chau border crossing in Hong Kong on January 8.

(Reuters)

[Compiled Chen Chengliang/Comprehensive Report] Hong Kong added 15,850 new confirmed cases of Wuhan pneumonia (new coronavirus disease, COVID-19) on the 7th, a drop of about 20% from the previous day. The confirmed cases included 509 imported cases. And the most contagious Omicron mutation branch XBB.1.5 strain imported cases were discovered for the first time.

On the other hand, China opened its doors on the 8th and reopened the border with Hong Kong. Nucleic acid testing is no longer required when entering China from Hong Kong. Hong Kong has also increased the number of checkpoints for entry into China to 7. Among them, the checkpoint at Lok Ma Chau Station will be on the 8th. There was a large crowd of people. During his inspection, Chief Executive Lee Ka-chao said that the number of checkpoints will be increased to 14. He hopes that the exchanges between China and Hong Kong can resume normal life before the epidemic as soon as possible.

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According to comprehensive Hong Kong media reports, the Hong Kong Center for Health Protection announced on the 7th that the first XBB.1.5 case in Hong Kong was an imported case. The patient was a 24-year-old woman who arrived in Hong Kong from the United Kingdom. She had received 2 doses of the vaccine.

According to the report, among the XBB cases recorded in Hong Kong, there are a total of 227 imported cases, including this XBB.1.5 case, and 173 local cases.

XBB.1.5 is setting off a new wave of epidemics in Europe and the United States, and has quickly become the mainstream strain in the United States, accounting for more than 40% of the total number of confirmed cases, and has been found in 29 countries around the world.

The World Health Organization stated earlier that XBB.1.5 is the Omicron subvariant strain with the strongest "immune escape ability" found so far, that is, the most contagious, but there is no evidence that it can cause more serious diseases.

Most patients with XBB.1.5 have cold-like symptoms, which are similar to those of Omicron.

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