Empty Covid centers need boosters

It is disturbing to learn that the government has no plan for the Kai Tak community isolation center and similar facilities in other locations more than a year after the end of the Covid pandemic.

A total of nine isolation facilities were built across the city at the peak of the pandemic but only a handful - such as the one in Yuen Long's Tam Mei and another in Tsing Yi - have been given new usages.

The rest are still empty while burning HK$3.75 million of public money a month, or HK$45 million a year, just to maintain them.

The biggest wastage is at the largest facility in Penny's Bay, next to Hong Kong Disneyland.

Maintenance of this one alone is estimated to consume half the budget. However, unlike the others, it sits on land owned by the theme park and could be used for its future expansion.

Others, including the Kai Tak facility, are not subject to such constraints.

It is difficult to believe that, after so many months since normal life returned to the city, all the government has been able to say as recently as a day ago was that deputy financial secretary Michael Wong Wai-lun had been tasked with coordinating with policy bureaus to explore the feasibility after the city's largest political party put forward a suggestion.

What has the government been doing about the vacant facilities over the months? Lawmakers have been wanting to know for some time.

When Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn replied to a question in the Legislative Council last month, all she had been able to say was, again, that they had been exploring possible uses for the facilities.

It appears that the government still does not have a plan and progress, if any, appears extremely slow.

After this newspaper's sister publication Sing Tao Daily reported how the Kai Tak community isolation facility has been left empty to become a constant eyesore for cruise passengers, as well as residents in nearby luxury premises, the city's largest political party DAB grabbed the issue with a proposal on how to turn the 3,000-unit space into a cultural and creative hub for international exchanges.

History reminds us that it was not uncommon in the past for DAB to speak ahead of any government announcement so that the party was in a position to claim political credit.

Could history be repeating itself?

No matter what, land is precious and should be put to the best use. The status quo is a situation of double wastage - taxpayers' money to maintain these facilities while they remain unused.

It is fine for DAB to suggest giving the Kai Tak facility a cultural and creative life but this by no means should be the only consideration. Its future use should also take into account the interests of other stakeholders in the area.

Bear in mind that the Kai Tak center is just one of the vacant facilities.

Let there be no further delay in drawing up a plan for each of these former Covid isolation centers.