The makeshift facility, modelled after Wuhan’s “fangcang”, or “square cabin”, would be the second of its kind in Hong Kong, after a similar structure was set up at AsiaWorld-Expo in Tung Chung, also with the help of the mainland.

‘Beijing to send support teams, millions of test kits’ to help Hong Kong Covid fight

“Based on Hong Kong’s request, we need to work out with Guangdong province the additional human resources and suitable mobile testing lab equipment to be sent to Hong Kong, without compromising Guangdong’s Covid-19 containment needs,” the source said.

Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu’s office said Hong Kong’s No 2 official had led a delegation to Shenzhen on Friday to prepare for the meeting with senior officials from the bordering city, Beijing and wider Guangdong.

The Hong Kong delegation includes the city’s health, security, mainland affairs, and transport and housing ministers. The health, home affairs, and food and environmental hygiene departments are also represented. They will meet officials and experts from the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, the National Health Commission and other relevant authorities.

Separately, a Guangdong health official said hundreds of Cantonese-speaking medical and lab personnel from Guangzhou and Shenzhen had already been dispatched to Hong Kong to lend a hand in laboratories and testing stations, with more set to follow.

“The first two batches of colleagues, a few hundred of them, already crossed the border into Hong Kong last week. We gave priority to those who can speak Cantonese, as they will need to interact with Hong Kong people,” he said.

The official added that the teams had to be mentally prepared for a long stint away from home, as once they were deployed they could not return to the mainland without having to undergo lengthy quarantine.

Anthony Wu Ting-yuk, chairman of Sunrise Diagnostic Centre and a former Hospital Authority chief, said he had asked local officials to request help from the mainland during Saturday’s meeting.

“In terms of manpower, we really need our country’s help. For the major testing contractors in Hong Kong, we have our hands full 24/7,” he told a radio programme.

“I estimate that if we have to undergo 3 million tests per day … then we will need more than 1,000 staff from the mainland to help.”

Wu later told the Post the estimate was made by Sunrise Diagnostic Centre experts and based on the mainland’s experience of implementing the “dynamic zero-Covid” strategy.

He said Hong Kong’s local testing capacity had reached its limit. He suggested the mainland was capable of sending more than 1,000 testing personnel to Hong Kong soon.

“The central government will definitely respond and offer assistance whenever Hong Kong makes requests,” he said.

Long queues have been seen in various coronavirus-hit areas as more compulsory testing notices are issued amid a ballooning fifth wave of infections.

In Discovery Bay, demand for Covid-19 tests remained high with residents flocking to testing booths. More than 20,000 residents are required to be tested by Sunday after sewage samples in the district were found to contain the coronavirus.

The city’s leader has said that a large-scale lab at the Ma On Shan Sports Centre, which Wu’s company will operate, will boost the city’s daily testing capacity to 300,000.

Wu said the laboratory, with support from the mainland, would start operations on February 15.

But Wu – a member of the standing committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the nation’s top advisory body – brushed aside a call for a citywide lockdown made by government adviser Gabriel Leung on Thursday.

Leung had predicted daily case counts could hit 28,000 at their peak, and related deaths could total 1,000 by June, even if the city maintained its current, strict social-distancing rules.

“A citywide lockdown is unnecessary as long as people are working from home and large-scale testing is implemented district by district,” Wu said.

“The government will not have enough resources to implement a lockdown on the whole city. But if we have enough manpower, we can lock down a dozen buildings for three days.”

In a late-night statement on Thursday, the cabinet-level Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office said the central government was “highly concerned” about the city’s raging fifth wave. A spokesman said Saturday’s meeting would deal with measures to support Hong Kong’s efforts to contain the outbreak and guarantee mainland supplies to the city.

A Beijing-based source said the mainland was preparing to send “thousands of medical and lab personnel and millions of testing kits” to Hong Kong.

Mainland authorities are also deploying more manpower at border checkpoints to speed up the processing of cross-border trucks to ease a shortage of vegetables and fresh food.