Hong Kong will take steps from Tuesday to cut the number of civil servants working in their offices, as it battles a spate of Covid-19 infections in the run-up to the busy Lunar New Year holiday, Reuters reports.

Daily cases hit an 18-month high of 140 in the last 24 hours, as a weekend surge in infections linked to a congested public housing estate sent authorities in the Asian financial hub scrambling to rein in the virus.

Some employees will "work from home as much as possible", the government has said in a statement, adding that individual departments might temporarily cut back on some public services as a result.