Coronavirus: work under way on one-third of new Hong Kong makeshift hospitals, isolation sites, with mainland Chinese medical staff to ‘arrive as early as next week’
- Hospital Authority chief Henry Fan says he hopes central government will deploy a first contingent of 3,000 to 5,000 medical practitioners
- Guangdong health official says first batch of mainland medical workers is expected to arrive in Hong Kong as early as next week to take over temporary facility in Tsing Yi
After the government’s announcement on Thursday that it would invoke an emergency law to allow mainland medical professionals to treat Covid-19 patients in Hong Kong, Hospital Authority chairman Henry Fan Hung-ling said he hoped Beijing would deploy a first contingent of 3,000 to 5,000 practitioners from across the border.
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A Guangdong health official on Friday said the first batch of mainland medical workers was expected to arrive in Hong Kong as early as next week to take over a temporary quarantine and treatment facility in Tsing Yi which would be equipped with a few hundred isolation units.
“We have shortlisted about 100 doctors and nurses who understand Cantonese and have treated Covid-19 patients before. A few experts on treatment and temporary hospital operations will come with them,” the source said.
To align with the mainland’s “dynamic zero-infection” strategy, Hong Kong will conduct compulsory mass testing on its entire population of 7.4 million in March. Each resident will be tested three times within a short period, with each screening taking five to seven days.