Pro-establishment lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun called on the government to arrange chartered flights to bring them back, for quarantine on a ship.

“That should be far away enough from any residents,” he said. “Even if you are to put them in Disneyland, Tung Chung District Council is going to oppose it. Everyone is opposing for the sake of opposing these days.

“The government should not be looking for the most ideal quarantine location, but somewhere with the least public resistance.”

The government is planning to build quarantine facilities on empty land near Disneyland, including a 60-hectare site reserved for the park’s expansion, sources say.

On Wednesday, the government said it was studying the public health risk of bringing the stranded Hongkongers home, and assessing whether the city had enough places to hold them.

But, specifically addressing the 10 Hongkongers infected with the virus, the government said the mainland did not allow any infected patients to leave.

The government has already faced resistance in various districts to quarantine centres or designated clinics where patients with mild fevers and respiratory illness are treated. A series of protests have taken place in the past week.

Tien said he was trying to arrange a meeting with the management of the Genting Cruise Line, which runs the Dream Cruises company, to ask whether it would let the Hong Kong government rent its World Dream cruise for a few months as a quarantine facility.

In response, a company spokesman said deployment of the World Dream was being “finalised at this moment, and it will be announced as soon as possible”.

Earlier this month, the 3,600 passengers and crew members on board the World Dream cruise were quarantined on the vessel for four days after eight passengers from a previous trip were found to be infected with the coronavirus. The ship’s operations have been suspended until further notice.

Undersecretary for Food and Health Dr Chui Tak-yi earlier said ships and hotels were not safe quarantine locations, because their ventilation systems may make it easier for the virus to spread.

Tien disputed this, pointing to the fact some cabins had windows for ventilation, and said the government needed to find new quarantine locations as people continued to enter the city from mainland China, even though there was a mandatory 14-day quarantine scheme in force.

Democratic Party lawmaker James To Kun-sun also supported bringing back the stranded Hongkongers, and said some of those he had been in contact with were running out of essential medicines.

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“There was a person whose blood pressure medicine will only last two more days,” To said. “There was another person whose drugs can only last nine more days, and the person had recently had an angioplasty.”

Quarantining people on the cruise ship was feasible because operations had been suspended and the cruise company may be willing to rent it to the government, To added.

“Even if the government is only to use those rooms on the cruise that have windows, there are hundreds of them,” he said.

Another option was the People’s Liberation Army barracks in the city, he said.

One of To’s party colleagues, lawmaker Helena Wong Pik-wan, called on the government to use the three hotels at Disneyland as quarantine facilities for the stranded Hongkongers, noting the amusement park had been closed since last month because of the outbreak.

She said the three hotels have about 1,750 rooms in total. Disneyland should be willing to do so because the government is its biggest shareholder, Wong added.

“The lack of quarantine spaces should not be an excuse for the government to not bring the Hongkongers back home,” Wong said. “Over the past few weeks, many foreign governments have already sent their citizens back home from Wuhan. But the government has been doing nothing in this regard.”

The Post asked Disneyland for a response.

Lawmaker Lo Wai-kwok, chairman of the pro-government Business and Professionals Alliance, was also among those suggesting the government arrange chartered flights.

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“When [those stuck in Wuhan] are back to Hong Kong, they need to be quarantined for 14 days. Since there are a lot of them, the government should send them somewhere far from residential estates, such as the cruise ships and the Disneyland hotels,” he said.

Infectious diseases expert Dr Joseph Tsang Kay-yan said hotels and cruise ships were normally not ideal quarantine locations because of ventilation problems. But if there were windows in the rooms, the plan could work, he said.

“What is most important is that their movements must be restricted; that they cannot be allowed to walk around the facilities,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong branch of the International Social Service, an NGO, has set up hotlines for residents stranded on the mainland. Social workers will answer their calls and provide assistance and emotional support.

Iris Liu, a programme director at the NGO, said they understood the frustration and hopelessness many were feeling by not knowing when they could return to the city.

“We want them to know that people in Hong Kong are thinking of them and we do care,” she said.

The hotlines run from 8am to 8pm daily: +852 5128 1919 , +852 5128 2255, +1989 655 1919, and +1989 655 2255