Coronavirus: 400 beds likely to be ready at Hong Kong’s AsiaWorld-Expo by this week, Hospital Authority says
- Authority’s director for cluster services Dr Deacons Yeung says the central government has donated furniture for the new facility
- Another two-storey makeshift hospital will come up next to the exhibition centre providing up to 1,000 beds, he adds
Four hundred more beds for Covid-19 patients will be ready for use at Hong Kong’s AsiaWorld-Expo later this week at the earliest, the Hospital Authority has revealed, as it lays out long-term plans to boost the city’s isolation beds by 2,400 to meet rising demand.
Dr Deacons Yeung Tai-kong, the authority’s director for cluster services, told a press briefing on Tuesday the central government had donated furniture for the new treatment facility, and revealed that the blueprint of another much-anticipated makeshift hospital next to the exhibition centre would involve a two-storey building providing up to 1,000 beds.
The latest plans ... will also allow us to optimise care for the right patients in the right place at the right time
“The latest plans are flexible and can be scaled up or down according to needs. It will also allow us to optimise care for the right patients in the right place at the right time,” he said.
On Tuesday, the third wave of Covid-19 in Hong Kong pushed the city’s infection tally to 4,181, with 58 deaths.
The city’s public hospitals have a total of 1,200 first-tier and 500 second-tier isolation beds. Last month, the authority opened a community isolation facility in Lei Yu Mun Park and Holiday Village, offering 350 beds for stable patients with mild symptoms. Earlier this month, it launched the city’s first community treatment facility in the exhibition hall 1 of AsiaWorld-Expo near the airport which offered 500 beds for young and healthy patients aged between 18 and 60.
