(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong’s supply of fresh food has returned to pre-pandemic levels, and manpower shortages in transport and other sectors have eased, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said at a press conference on Saturday.

China has ensured that the city receives medical and other supplies, with a record 10,000 tonnes of goods delivered from the mainland on Friday, Lam said. Hong Kong had faced labor shortages across transport and other sectors, and about a one third of public servants were infected by Covid, she said.

The city’s healthcare staff are provided with about 2 million rapid antigen tests daily as the mainland supplies the devices and other personal protection equipment, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau said at the briefing. About 450,000 boxes of medical products were donated to Hong Kong from China, he said.

The virus case count in the city has steadily declined over the past week but Lam would not comment on whether the city’s so-called fifth wave of infections is subsiding.

“I cannot comfortably say we have passed a peak,” she said. “We would like to see case numbers come down to the extent that we can say the fifth wave has ended, but we cannot set a specific number.”

Hong Kong Still Monitoring if Current Covid Outbreak Has Peaked

On Friday, Hong Kong reported more than 29,000 Covid cases, 18,888 confirmed by nucleic acid test and 10,493 by rapid antigen tests. Infections have fallen from more than 50,000 last week.

The city would recruit another 1,000 caregivers from China, the officials said.

“We’re not short of money and we will spend whatever money is required in order to get us out of this epidemic as soon as possible,” Lam said.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.