Coronavirus: location of new makeshift hospital in Hong Kong to be decided as early as next week
- Sources say it will be ‘a scalable plan’ that will allow for capacity to be increased if outbreak worsens
- Personal protective equipment, masks and other medical supplies from the mainland will also be arriving ‘in batches’ as early as next week
Sources said it would be “a scalable plan” that would allow for capacity to be increased should the outbreak spiral further out of control, but the choice of location would be partially decided by the initial size of the facility.
The hospital would be modelled on the type that first appeared in the mainland Chinese city of Wuhan at the start of the pandemic more than two years ago and which provided thousands of additional beds within just a few weeks, they said.
Hong Kong has been setting a string of records for the number of new Covid-19 infections, while 1,347 more cases were confirmed on Sunday. About 2,000 preliminary positive infections were also reported, also a new high.
The city’s official tally of confirmed cases stands at 22,980, with 221 related deaths.
After meeting mainland officials in Shenzhen on Saturday, Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu said the government would set up five joint task forces with neighbouring Guangdong province to focus on boosting Hong Kong’s ability to carry out testing and pathological examinations, constructing quarantine facilities and maintaining a steady supply of medical goods.