Tsing Yi makeshift hospital draws complaints

Some 800 stable Covid-19 patients have been housed at 3,900-bed Tsing Yi makeshift hospital by Sunday night, amid complaints about poor meals and people having waited for hours before admission.

A long queue of over 70 vehicles carrying patients to the facility stretched for 1 kilometer near midnight on Sunday.

A woman surnamed Lee said she and her mother had to wait for six hours outside the facility on a vehicle before being admitted. Some elderly citizens were rejected from using the washroom in the facility during the waiting period.

Lee said they were given chips and cup noodles for dinner even though they had sore throats. Others said fried food were supplied in every meal, and they did not eat it as they felt ill.

Health authorities earlier said some people were unwilling to go to the Tsing Yi facility because of the information on the internet, including the squat toilets and bad meal arrangement.

A spokesman for the Hospital Authority urged citizens to not believe in the "deceiving speeches" on social media and ruin the good cooperation between the authority’s medical team and other government departments. It also rejected claims that the medical station in the Tsing Yi facility has not been set up, saying its medical team has been working closely with the Security Bureau -- which is responsible for managing the isolation facility.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung said on Sunday that people subject to compulsory quarantine orders do not have a choice and could be brought to the isolation facility even if they don’t want to.

Authorities said they have been carrying out improvement and refinement works at the isolation facility since it opened last Tuesday to ensure smoother operation, adding that more patients will be admitted later.