Hong Kong residents disembark from a government-chartered flight and board a coach to depart for a quarantine center after arriving in Hong Kong from Hubei province, March 4, 2020. (EDMOND TANG / CHINA DAILY)

HONG KONG – The government is arranging a second round of evacuation this month to bring back home Hong Kong residents stranded in Hubei province, according to Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affiars Patrick Nip Tak-kuen.

Nip, who led the previous two-day evacuation operation that brought home 469 stranded residents from the province, said about 500 to 600 people, mostly from nearby places of Wuhan, the provincial capital and epicenter of novel coronavirus outbreak, are expected to be covered during this round. 

READ MORE: 1st chartered flights bring back 244 HK residents from Hubei

The details will be released soon, he said. 

Currently, around 3,400 Hong Kong residents are still remaining in different cities of the province. 

Though the epidemic on the mainland is slowing down, there is need to bring those with urgent needs back to the city, he added.

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He said the government will also need to take into account the capability of the city’s quarantine centers, which currently have 700 units available, with a rising number of imported cases amid a global outbreak.