Coronavirus: Hong Kong pledges HK$25 billion in cash handouts for groups battered by crisis and direct subsidies for firms to make masks to relieve dire shortage
- Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says bigger war chest will target specific businesses and workers, and low-income families hit hard by crisis
- As pressure mounts to bring home Hongkongers stranded in epidemic-hit Hubei, officials indicate for first time they are preparing to do so in batches
As pressure mounted for the government to bring home Hongkongers stranded in epidemic-hit Hubei province, officials for the first time indicated they were preparing to do so in batches but were tight-lipped on further details.
They did let on, however, that the currently closed Disneyland had agreed to lend vacant sites for the government to build quarantine facilities.
The new spending will have to be approved by the Legislative Council, with a special sitting to be held probably after February 19, she said. “We urge lawmakers to support the funding.”
While welcoming the more targeted measures, lawmakers and political analysts chastised Lam and her cabinet for dithering over the past weeks with a response that appeared to lack urgency, especially, for example, when the government itself admitted it only had two months of mask supplies for its use.