Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip (center) speaks at a press conference flanked by Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu (left) and Secretary for Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan in Hong Kong on Feb 24, 2020. (PHOTO / CHINA DAILY)

HONG KONG - The Hong Kong government announced on Monday it is arranging chartered flights to pick up Hong Kong residents stranded in Hubei province — the epicenter of the novel coronavirus epidemic.

The government said that more than 2,700 Hong Kong residents are in Hubei.

The first batch of passengers is expected to comprise 450 Hong Kong residents currently in Wuhan, the provincial capital

The first batch of passengers is expected to comprise 450 Hong Kong residents currently in Wuhan, the provincial capital, Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Secretary Patrick Nip said at a news conference. The government did not offer a timetable for the plan.

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The government will also try to bring back to Hong Kong in the first chartered flights those citizens who are elsewhere in the province but who need urgent repatriation. Those include pregnant women and people in urgent need of medicines or medical treatment, as well as students who need to take upcoming college-leaving exams.

Nip said all passengers need to take health checks before boarding the flights, and those with symptoms of the infection will not be allowed on board. He added that all passengers needed to be quarantined for 14 days after arriving in Hong Kong.

So far, Hubei has reported more than 64,000 cases of infection caused by a novel coronavirus — comprising majority of the Chinese mainland’s more than 77,000 cases.

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Also at the news conference, Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu announced that as of 6 am on Tuesday, all non-local people from South Korea will be banned from entering Hong Kong because of the epidemic situation in that country. Lee also announced that the Hong Kong government had issued a “red travel alert” for South Korea, warning local residents to not visit the country unless necessary.