Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor (second left) inspects Chun Yeung Estate in Fo Tan on Wednesday. The estate will be used as a quarantine center for Hong Kong passengers on the Diamond Princess. (PHOTO / INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT)
The government said early Thursday (today) that its first charter flight will take home at least 92 Hong Kong passengers who have been quarantined aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan since early this month.
The number of passengers to be evacuated via the first flight that was scheduled to arrive in Hong Kong on Thursday morning was higher than the 45 announced on Wednesday.
The government may arrange a third chartered flight to Tokyo to take back the rest of the passengers
John Lee Ka-chiu, secretary for security
The 45 are among 52 Hong Kong passengers who were allowed to disembark from the ship and chose to take the flight, according to Under Secretary for Security Sonny Au Chi-kwong, who is in Japan to handle the issue.
Under the HKSAR government’s arrangements, all of them will be required to stay at quarantine centers for 14 days on their return to Hong Kong.
The Diamond Princess has been quarantined at Yokohama port since Feb 4. So far, 621 people on board have been infected by the novel coronavirus, including 53 from Hong Kong.
The SAR government has arranged two chartered fights to take Hong Kong passengers stranded on the ship back to the city free of charge. The second flight is also expected to leave Tokyo on Thursday, according to Au.
He said about 230 among the 352 Hong Kong passengers on the Diamond Princess have indicated they would like to take the chartered flights home.
Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu told the Legislative Council on Wednesday the government may arrange a third chartered flight to Tokyo to take back the rest of the passengers.
Meanwhile, the tally of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Hong Kong reached 65 on Wednesday, while the fatality toll rose to two following the death of a 70-year-old patient in Princess Margaret Hospital.
In Shenzhen, the authorities have set up a green channel for processing Hong Kong visa applications to visit family members or relatives, study, work or for training programs amid the epidemic.
The Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau said the green channel will keep human-to-human contacts to the minimum in processing the applications.
Applicants can make bookings in advance via phone, wait for postal services to collect all required documents and then finish payments online. New visas will be mailed to applicants, who will be subjected to the mandatory 14-day quarantine on arrival in Hong Kong.
Applications for tourist and business visas have been suspended since Feb 2 and Feb 7 respectively to minimize travels between Hong Kong and the mainland.
