Coronavirus: 450 Hongkongers stranded in Wuhan set to return home this week
- Chief Executive Carrie Lam says important task for her government in the week ahead is to bring back those stranded in virus epicentre
- Meanwhile, three more people diagnosed with Covid-19 in Hong Kong, taking city’s total to 98
More than 450 Hongkongers stranded in the coronavirus-stricken mainland Chinese city of Wuhan are set to return home on government-chartered flights this week.
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip Tak-kuen confirmed on Sunday night that most of the 660 Hong Kong residents had agreed to be airlifted out of the epicentre of the epidemic, but about 20 per cent had declined the offer.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, responding to intense public and political pressure, said an important task for her government in the week ahead would be to bring back the first batch.
She wrote on her Facebook page that details of the evacuation operation would be announced “within days”. Nip had earlier said it could be Wednesday.
On Sunday evening, three more Hongkongers tested positive for the deadly coronavirus, taking the total number of cases in the city to 98.
They are a 71-year-old woman who visited the Buddhist temple in North Point at the centre of an infection cluster, and an elderly couple.