Guard in coma after golf-cart crash

A female security guard at the idle Lok Ma Chau Loop makeshift Covid hospital remains in a coma after being thrown out of a golf cart yesterday.

Guard Wong, 65, sustained severe head injuries and was rushed to Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin comatose.

At around 11.30am Wong's male supervisor Yu, also 65, was driving her and two colleagues to their posts at the makeshift hospital on a golf cart.

It is believed that the cart drove over some rocks and lost control as it was making a turn near a gate.

The cart then rammed into a fence, and Wong, who was in the front seat, was thrown out of the cart. Her head landed first on the ground and she immediately fell into a coma, with her clothes soon stained by blood.

Yu had his forehead bruised and was taken to Prince of Wales Hospital too, while Wong's two female colleagues Yeung and Pang - both aged 52 - sustained injuries to their forehead, limbs, back and jaw and were sent to North District Hospital in Sheung Shui.

Police initially listed the case as an industrial accident and later re-classified it as a "traffic accident with person injured," with the cause of the accident still under investigation.

It was understood that the site is currently under construction, while the golf cart is mainly used to carry employees to their posts or rest areas and to transport materials.

The four security guards were on duty at the time of the accident.

The Lok Ma Chau facility was the SAR's biggest Covid treatment center, built with the help of mainland experts, at the height of the fierce fifth wave of the pandemic last spring.

But the hospital, with some 4,500 rooms and over 10,000 beds, was never put to use after it was handed over to the SAR government from Shenzhen municipal government last December.

That's because overseas arrivals and Covid patients no longer needed to isolate at quarantine facilities after Hong Kong lifted the mandatory quarantine requirements by the end of January.

In February, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said his administration is currently reviewing the number of makeshift Covid hospitals the city should retain when he was asked whether the demolition of such facilities would be a waste of resources.

Lee added that some of the facilities would be put on standby mode, while the authorities are considering adopting the Lok Ma Chau Loop makeshift hospital for short-term use, including as a youth hostel or a venue for youth activities.