Massive increase in isolation facilities to cope with potentially huge positive cases

More isolation facilities with at least 48,000 units and four makeshift hospitals are to be constructed with Beijing's support while private developers are willing to take Covid patients in their hotels, Carrie Lam says.

The four temporary hospitals at Tsing Yi, former San Tin Shopping City, and in Tam Mei and Hung Shui Kiu in Yuen Long, loaned by Sun Hung Kai Properties and Henderson Land, will offer 14,000 to 17,000 units.

The Tsing Yi temporary hospital can start service in a week, says a report by state media Xinhua.

Beijing is also helping to build a new makeshift treatment facility and an isolation structure in Lok Ma Chau Loop with 3,000 to 6,000 units.

Lam estimated 30,000 Covid patients are waiting at home for admission to hospitals or isolation facilities. To cater to a possibly large number of patients picked up in the universal testing, authorities are pumping up capacities of isolation facilities. "Our target is still to isolate patients, even for those with mild or even no symptoms," she said.

Within this week, authorities can double isolation units from the current 5,000 to 12,000 as three new public housing blocks and more community isolation hotels will begin service, in addition to Penny's Bay and public holiday camps.

Next month, 16,000 extra units from isolation hotels and a new facility at Kai Tak Cruise Terminal will also be up and running.

Under Beijing's support, construction work to expand the existing Penny's Bay isolation facility and build a new one at the cruise terminal has begun, which will offer around 10,000 units in phases in the coming months.

Xie Hui, a leader of the mainland support team to help Hong Kong build quarantine facilities, said his task force is allocating resources and assigning urgent production of materials to make sure the structures can be ready for use as soon as possible.

To reserve the public quarantine facilities for patients in undesirable living environments, Lam said she has asked government departments to arrange locations to accommodate their infected staff on their own.

The Correctional Services Department is using its Cape Collinson Correctional Institution in Chai Wan and Sha Tsui Correctional Institution on Lantau Island while the Marine Department will use the China Ferry Terminal for their infected staff.

Universities, the Vocational Training Council, MTR Corporation and other non-governmental organizations are also making plans to take care of their infected employees, she said.

Respiratory specialist Leung Chi-chiu said the most effective policy to contain the SAR's outbreaks is by quick and stringent isolation.

"If patients can get isolated quickly, and citizens are willing to stay at home, outbreaks may be able to drop by half in a week and be contained in three months," he said.

The Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and Federation of Hong Kong Industries welcomed the plan and called for businessmen to allow their workers flexible working hours to comply with the mandatory tests.

Pro-establishment lawmakers and other political camps welcomed the measures to flush out silent carriers by mass testing and build more facilities to isolate patients.

However, the Democratic Party said Lam had failed to iron out a timetable or conditions when closed businesses could reopen, and questioned the effectiveness of stringent measures amid extensive outbreaks of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

jane.cheung@singtaonewscorp.com