Hong Kong budget: millions to be spent upgrading city’s health technology for fight against Covid-19

Name: What Hong Kong’s 2021-22 budget means for residents of the city
Uploaded: 2021-02-24T11:30:31.000Z
Duration: 3 min 43 s
Description: What Hong Kong’s 2021-22 budget means for residents of the city

Government’s total spending on health is set to rise from HK$98.3 billion in this financial year, to HK$115.8 billion in 2021-2022

Millions of dollars pledged for IT and hardware upgrades for cross-border health code and contact-tracing centre

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Government officers stand guard at the perimeter of a Covid-19 lock down zone in Yau Ma Tei. Photo: Sam Tsang

Victor TingandElizabeth Cheung

Published: 7:30pm, 24 Feb 2021Updated: 11:59pm, 24 Feb 2021

Hong Kong will spend millions of dollars on mostly IT and hardware upgrades for a potential cross-border health code and the new contact-tracing centre, as part of its ongoing fight against Covid-19.

As the city gradually emerges from a fourth wave of coronavirus infections, with 17 new cases logged on Wednesday, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also pumped HK$147 million into mental health, with many residents struggling emotionally during the crisis.

“It is the government’s top priority to contain the epidemic so that businesses and the public can be back to their daily routines,” Chan said in his budget speech. “I will continue to provide adequate resources to fully support the anti-epidemic work.”

Unveiled on Wednesday, the government’s total spending on health is set to rise from HK$98.3 billion in this financial year, to HK$115.8 billion in 2021-2022, marking a 17.8 per cent increase. Recurrent expenditures will amount to HK$95.9 billion, a 7.9 per cent year-on-year rise from HK$88.9 billion.

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What Hong Kong’s 2021-22 budget means for residents of the city

Most of the money for the fight against the virus has already been accounted for, but an additional HK$1.4 billion will be given to the Hospital Authority, and an extra HK$2.6 billion to the Department of Health, to procure personal protective equipment and carry out more testing of frontline staff, among other things.