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Sunday, September 27, 2020, 14:30
HK adding new medical facilities as city reports 6 new virus cases
By Wang Zhan
Sunday, September 27, 2020, 14:30 By Wang Zhan

People walk under construction scaffolding in Hong Kong on September 27, 2020. (MAY JAMES / AFP)

HONG KONG - With the central government's support, Hong Kong is building a makeshift hospital and adding new treatment facilities in AsiaWorld-Expo (AWE) in case a new wave of the COVID-19 epidemic breaks out in winter.

Hong Kong also reported six new virus cases on Sunday, bringing the city's tally of confirmed infections to 5,065.

Michael Wong Wai-lun, secretary for development of the government of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said on Sunday that the construction starting Sept 19 has progressed smoothly and predicted the treatment facilities expansion project in AWE will be completed in four weeks.

Secretary for Development Michael Wong Wai-lun said the new AWE treatment facilities can provide nearly 1,000 hospital beds, including 160 beds in negative pressure wards

In an online article, Wong said the new AWE treatment facilities can provide nearly 1,000 hospital beds, including 160 beds in negative pressure wards.

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The makeshift hospital adjacent to AWE will be built in four months and will have negative pressure wards able to hold more than 800 beds, Wong said.

With the new anti-epidemic projects, the pressure on public hospitals will be significantly reduced in case there is a new wave of outbreak, Tony Ko, chief executive of Hong Kong's Hospital Authority, has said.

The construction is also supported by the governments of Guangdong Province and its Shenzhen city and the costs will be paid by the mainland authorities, according to Wong.  

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In a media briefing on Sunday afternoon, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s Communicable Disease Branch, said the six new cases on Sunday included five imported cases and one local infection with an unknown origin.

In this file photo, an airline passenger (left) leaves a temporary COVID-19 testing center set up at the AsiaWorld-Expo for arriving passengers in Hong Kong on April 18, 2020. (ISAAC LAWRENCE / AFP)

Chuang said the five imported cases included a domestic worker from the Philippines, two persons returning from the United Kingdom, and one each from Tunisia, and India.

The new local infection involved a 22-year-old construction worker who lived in Sham Shui Po and worked in a construction site at Muk Tai Street in Kai Tak, Chuang said.

She said patient’s nine coworkers, who shared a common room with him for their meals and rest, had been quarantined.

“Two had some symptoms when we found them last night and they have been sent to the hospital,” Chuang said.

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“One is preliminary positive and is believed to have been infected at work while the other tested negative and is now quarantined,” she added.

Chuang said around 500 construction workers were employed at the Kai Tak construction site and 

they were all given bottles so that they could provide samples to be tested for the virus.    

According to the Hospital Authority, there were no deaths due to the virus on Sunday and nine patients were discharged from hospitals after they recovered.

There were still 141 confirmed patients under isolation in public hospital, and 11 of them are in critical condition while eight are in serious condition. 


With inputs from Xinhua


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