Hong Kong secures 20,000 hotel rooms to isolate Covid-19 patients and close contacts, with 1,000 retired officers from disciplined services to manage sites
- New World Development has offered 700 rooms at its Pentahotel Hong Kong in Kowloon, while Sun Hung Kai Properties will provide 1,000 rooms from two hotels
- Preferred sites are those already providing quarantine for travellers, far from densely populated neighbourhoods, not attached to shopping malls
The Post learned on Thursday that the rooms would be designated for people deemed close contacts of coronavirus patients, and infected individuals with mild symptoms.
The first batch of hotels, set to provide 4,400 rooms within the week, include the Dorsett Tsuen Wan Hotel Hong Kong, iclub Ma Tau Wai Hotel and Fortress Hill hotels, as well as the Regal Oriental Hotel in Kowloon City. The Dorsett hotel will begin operations on Friday, with Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung to inspect the facility on Thursday.
Tourism sector lawmaker Yiu Pak-leung said the government was looking for at least 10,000 to 15,000 hotel rooms.
New World Development has offered 700 rooms at its Pentahotel Hong Kong in Kowloon as a community isolation facility.
“The hotel will actively discuss relevant arrangements with government departments,” the group said in a statement, adding it would “evaluate the feasibility of the hotel’s facilities” and supporting features “as soon as possible”.
Hong Kong reports 6,116 coronavirus cases, eases discharge criteria for patients
Sun Hung Kai Properties will provide a total of 1,000 rooms from two hotels, including the Crowne Plaza Hong Kong Kowloon East in Tseung Kwan O, as isolation facilities, according to a source. The company’s chairman Raymond Kwok Ping-luen said the group would support the city’s anti-pandemic drive and urged the public to get vaccinated.
Henderson Land Development said it would facilitate the government’s plan to look for sites in the New Territories for anti-pandemic purposes, while also promising to donate HK$13 million (US$1.66 million) worth of drugs, food, disinfection products and supermarket coupons to those in need.
Swire Properties was “actively reviewing all of our options across our portfolio to see how we can support the government to meet the target of securing 7,000 to 10,000 hotel rooms for quarantine purposes”, a spokeswoman told the Post.
Swire’s EAST Hong Kong has been a quarantine hotel since February 1, while Novotel Citygate Hong Kong will do so from March 1.
Lam met developers and hotel representatives via video conferencing on Wednesday to discuss the arrangements. A day earlier, Lam set the target of an additional 10,000 rooms to isolate Covid-19 patients.
In a statement issued by the Chief Executive’s Office on Wednesday night, Lam said the government had already secured some 4,400 rooms before the webinar, of which roughly 1,700 would be made available before the end of this week and the rest before the end of the next.
Officials are under immense pressure to quickly roll out more measures to cope with the exponential growth of infections after Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday urged the local government to shoulder the main responsibility for containing the outbreaks as soon as possible.
The city on Thursday confirmed 6,116 Covid-19 cases, with another 6,300 preliminary-positive infections. At least 12,000 patients were waiting to be admitted to isolation facilities or hospitals for treatment, a medical source said earlier.
A source familiar with the hotel deployment said authorities had offered HK$1,600 per room for hotels managed by a hotelier itself, or HK$1,000 per room for hotels that preferred to let the government manage their facilities.
03:55
Hospitals overflow with Covid-19 patients as Xi sends message to Hong Kong's leaders
Hotels preferred for the scheme are those already providing quarantine for arrivals to the city, as well as properties that are not close to densely populated neighbourhoods or attached to shopping malls.
“It is more desirable to deploy existing quarantine hotels, which fulfil current quarantine and public health requirements,” the source said.
The government is hiring at least 1,000 retired disciplined services officers across five departments to help manage the hotel facilities, according to another source.
The officers will be hired on a three-month contract with a 15 per cent gratuity, 5½ days of paid leave monthly and Mandatory Provident Fund benefits, with duty details yet to be mapped out. They will be paid between HK$38,365 and HK$91,615 per month.
Retired Fire Services Department director Daryl Li Kin-yat was named the head of a special task force that will supervise the isolation facilities, while former Immigration Department deputy chief Chan Tin-chi has been asked to come out of retirement to assist in the anti-pandemic projects.
Omicron has brought Hong Kong to its knees. How did it all go wrong?
Yiu said the government had told the hospitality industry its requirements for a participating hotel, which should be a stand-alone building with independent and direct access, and have at least 200 guest rooms. The contract period for the scheme would be three months.
The government would provide infection control training for staff of participating hotels and arrange for medical support.
“If the participating hotel prefers the government team to take over the day-to-day activities such as checking in and out, allocation of rooms, cleansing and security, this is also acceptable,” he said.
Yiu said the hotel industry still had sufficient supplies to meet the demand for compulsory quarantine services for returning travellers even though some existing designated hotels would become isolation facilities.
Hotels answer Carrie Lam’s call, agree to help with more isolation rooms
Nerine Yip Lau-ching, secretary general of the Hotels, Food and Beverage Employees Association, said if non-quarantine designated hotels were recruited, then employees would be concerned because of the highly contagious Omicron variant.
“Even though nearly 80 per cent of hotel employees have been vaccinated, ordinary hotel employees do not have professional knowledge of epidemic prevention, so they must be worried,” she said, adding that support equipment from the government, transparent procedures, and affirmation from the management would help alleviate concerns.
A total of 40 hotels providing 11,500 rooms are currently in use as quarantine facilities for overseas travellers, rising to 44 hotels and 12,500 rooms from March 1 to July 31. That accounts for 14 per cent of Hong Kong’s 320 hotels with 89,403 rooms being used for quarantine services.
Wharf Hotels, Sino Group and CK Asset are understood to be considering ways to support the government.
Separately, the Hong Kong Tourism Board reported an increase of 61.7 per cent in January of 7,064 visitor arrivals, compared with the previous year. The majority came from mainland China, with just 1,309 international visitors. Last year, the number of arrivals dropped 97.4 per cent. There were 3.57 million in 2020 to 91,398 last year and the number of tourists was “close to zero.”
Meanwhile, Cathay Pacific Airways said on Thursday it carried a total of 24,699 passengers last month, a 99.2 per cent decrease compared to pre-pandemic levels in January 2019. Cargo also fell last month by 32 per cent to 74,242 tonnes compared with January last year.
Cathay’s passenger flight capacity in January was about 2.1 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels, with cargo volumes dropping to 21 per cent. The spread of the Omicron variant has resulted in a further tightening of travel restrictions, including stricter quarantine requirements for Hong Kong-based aircrew.
Additional reporting by Gary Cheung and Christy Leung
