There is not a shadow of doubt that the commissioning of the newly-completed temporary hospital for COVID-19 patients, built with the help of the Chinese mainland, will greatly boost Hong Kong’s ability to contain the pandemic.

Before herd immunity is achieved by having enough residents vaccinated, which is unlikely within a few months given the fact that the city can only start to roll out mass vaccinations in February the earliest, strict social distancing and quarantine regimes will remain the only means to cope with the novel coronavirus in the city. And the availability of sufficient negative pressure rooms and beds for accommodating all people testing positive is crucial not only to the success of a quarantine regime but also minimizing the number of deaths and cutting off the transmission chains. 

This is evidenced by the situations in many places, where because of the lack of negative pressure rooms, many COVID-19 patients who are considered less serious are left at home to recover by their own. This has not only caused many unnecessary deaths but also contributed to community outbreaks and thus the snowballing of the pandemic. 

Take the United Kingdom for example. Early on the British government adopted the “herd immunity” strategy, sending COVID-19 patients home or to care homes from hospitals, mainly because the surge in COVID-19 patients was threatening to over-whelm its National Health Service. And the results were disastrous, as the world knows.

In contrast, in response to the onslaught of the pandemic, the Chinese mainland promptly built several temporary hospitals with sufficient capacity to accommodate all COVID-19 patients detected. The hospitalization of all patients has not only significantly reduced the COVID-19 death toll but also helped effectively contain the virus by cutting off the transmission chains. 

The launch of the new temporary hospital on Wednesday, providing an additional 820 negative pressure beds, is particularly timely as COVID-19 cases rebounded recently, with community outbreaks being reported in several districts. The number of new coronavirus cases hit a one-month high on Monday, reaching 107. As a result of the new wave of outbreaks, the city’s available medical facilities for treating COVID-19 patients are running out. Before the opening of the new temporary hospital, there were 691 negative pressure rooms in various public hospitals, with 70 percent being in use, while 1,259 negative pressure beds were activated, with 59 percent being in use. 

Notwithstanding the repeated outbreaks, Hong Kong has performed relatively well in coping with the pandemic compared with most other places, thanks to the strong support of the Chinese mainland, which sent experienced medical professionals to the city last summer to help implement a mass testing program and facilitated the construction of temporary treatment facilities at AsiaWorld-Expo, aside from the new temporary hospital.