The measures included opening another ward at an infection control centre, transferring stable patients to private hospitals, and adding manpower and beds as needed.

“We noticed that for influenza, the number of cases has risen sharply in the past few weeks, but it seems over the past week it has already reached its peak,” said Simon Tang Yiu-hang, director of cluster services at the authority.

“For Covid-19, we see the trend is still rising. It’s difficult to say whether it has reached its peak, we need to closely monitor the situation.”

He said more than 6,000 people visited accident and emergency departments at public hospitals every day. More than 1,200 patients were hospitalised this week, up from 950 in the previous one.

About a third of this week’s admissions were Covid-19 cases, he said, adding he expected the number of infections to remain high in the coming weeks.

Dr Larry Lee Lap-yip, a chief manager at the authority, said the government would open another ward with about 140 beds at the North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre by Thursday to welcome more of the Covid-19 patients.