(To watch the video with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Centre for Health Protection today addressed concerns over whether COVID-19 has entered a new phase and its need for Police assistance to combat the virus.

The centre’s Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan said even though the ways in which some patients contracted the disease remains unknown, the virus has not entered another phase because the numbers of those testing positive are not increasing rapidly.

"I think we are not entering into another phase or such, because the development is a bit gradual. We are observing a bit more local cases with no identifiable source."

Dr Chuang explained that the centre would like Police to activate its Major Incident Investigation & Disaster Support System to assist them with contact tracing and identifying clusters.

"So we would like to seek the help of Police to see whether they can help to obtain more information about the contact tracing between different individuals.

"For example, maybe two people live close together, but they do not recall any contact with each other. So maybe with the help of Police, we can find some clustering or some meeting points that we could not obtain during our normal contact tracing."