Hong Kong was expected to break its 12-day streak of 100-plus new Covid-19 infections on Monday, with around 80 confirmed cases, according to South China Morning Post today.
Two more patients died. The elderly victims, aged 83 and 84 respectively, passed away on Monday morning, bringing Hong Kong’s coronavirus-related death toll to 37.
The news came as a source said land next to the AsiaWorld-Expo exhibition centre, near the city’s airport, had been chosen as the site of a second temporary hospital.
With a run of more than 100 new Covid-19 cases a day since 22 July, the city’s total number of infections stood at 3,511, as of Sunday.
The second temporary hospital, Asian World Forum Community Treatment Facilities, will be established with the help of a six-member team from Wuhan.
It was likely to be built on a 570,000 sq ft site originally reserved for a major Phase Two expansion of the exhibition centre, the source said.
The first makeshift hospital, located inside AsiaWorld-Expo, opened on Saturday.
According to a hospital source, about 400 beds arrived in Hong Kong from Shenzhen on Sunday night, and would be used at the hospital.
The news came as a source said land next to the AsiaWorld-Expo exhibition centre, near the city’s airport, had been chosen as the site of a second temporary hospital.
According to a hospital source, about 400 beds arrived in Hong Kong from Shenzhen on Sunday night, and would be used at the hospital.
Meanwhile, an infectious disease expert said on Monday that Hong Kong should set up one to two “super testing factories” if it planned to increase the city’s Covid-19 testing capacity.
“We would need new space and new equipment, and to increase rapidly the amount of staff involved in testing,” Dr Ho Pak-leung, from the University of Hong Kong, said. “In existing facilities, we have lots of constraints in space and can’t rapidly increase the testing amount.”
He made his comments after the first members of a virus testing team from mainland China arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday, to assist with the preparation of a temporary laboratory to raise the city’s virus testing capacity.
They were among some 60 testing technicians to be sent from Guangdong province to the city.
He said with a population of 7.5 million in Hong Kong, the testing for all would need to be done in four days – a period shorter than the median of the virus’ incubation period – to achieve an effective outcome.
“Every day we need to collect samples of 2 million people and send them to those super factories for virus testing,” Ho said. “Could we mobilise manpower to collect 2 million samples every day?”
Instead, he said the government could make use of the extra testing capacity to speed up the turnaround time and increase the number of tests being processed, such as specimens collected at public outpatient clinics and private doctors.
(South China Morning Post/ Macau News)
