Coronavirus: ‘huge headache’ trying to get more than 2,000 stranded Hongkongers home, Wuhan trade office admits
- Vincent Fung, director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Wuhan, posts candid statements on Facebook while at work in epicentre of coronavirus outbreak
- He says supplies of daily necessities are still normal with slightly raised prices, and assures public his team has been working non-stop
A Hong Kong family of four who have got stuck in Hubei province for a fortnight amid a lockdown prompted by the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus have only three surgical masks left to share as they wait desperately for the city’s government to bring them home.
But the head of the Hong Kong government’s representative office in Wuhan on Thursday could not give any immediate hope, admitting it was a “huge headache” getting more than 2,000 Hongkongers stuck in the province back home.
Danny Leung Shun-hing has been stranded in the southwestern Hubei city of Enshi, some 500km away from Wuhan, with his family since January 24, idling away their time watching TV at the home of his brother-in-law.
“I feel the Hong Kong government has no concrete plan to bring us home, though I appreciate that officials had contacted me,” Leung said over the phone on Thursday.
He has been contacted only once by the Hong Kong government’s office in Wuhan, he said. That came on Monday, five days after he asked his mother in Hong Kong to pass on his request for help.
But he was only told to wait patiently.