Coronavirus: Government could charter flights to bring home first batch of Hongkongers stranded in Hubei next Wednesday
- Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip says the government will liaise with relevant authorities to work out the details
- Pregnant women, patients with severe illnesses, those in need of surgeries, and students taking the DSE examination will be given priority
The government could charter flights to bring home the first batch of Hongkongers stranded in Hubei province in mainland China, the epicentre of the Covid-19 epidemic, next Wednesday, the Post has learned.
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip Tak-kuen said the government would liaise with the provincial authorities, officials in Hubei’s capital city of Wuhan, and Cathay Dragon, the airline that will provide the flights, to work out the details.
Nip said the process would take time because the Immigration Department would have to contact each person who reached out to the office to verify their residency status.
“The Department of Health also has to review their declaration of health conditions, especially of those who are in special conditions, such as pregnancy and chronic illnesses, to assess whether they are suitable to board the flights,” Nip wrote in a Facebook post on Friday.
He gave no timeline, but a person familiar with the matter said Nip believed it could be done as early as next Wednesday.
When the government announced plans to rescue stranded Hongkongers earlier this week – following weeks of pressure from across the political spectrum – it said the flights would only accept Hong Kong ID card holders with no symptoms of fever and respiratory or infectious diseases.
