Cases Of COVID-19 Infection Soar, Hong Kong Prepares 20 Thousand Hotel Rooms For Quarantine

Illustration of a COVID-19 testing facility in Hong Kong (Wikimedia Commons/Gorgeo Wrmalauoi Htainup)

JAKARTA - Hong Kong has identified more than 20.000 hotel rooms for quarantine accommodation, local authority leader Carrie Lam said on Friday, as property developers gathered to support the global financial hub's battle to curb a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Lam said 21 hotels had expressed interest in turning their facilities into isolation areas, exceeding "by a large margin from the government's initial target of 7.000 to 10.000 rooms".

Quarantine facilities in Hong Kong have reached capacity, while hospital beds are more than 90 percent full due to the spiraling case, with some patients, including the elderly, left lying in bed outside the building in the cold, sometimes rainy weather.

Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) said late Thursday it could provide 1.000 rooms in two hotels for isolation facilities and would broadcast a government promotional video about vaccine passports in its main malls.

While New World Development said it plans to provide about 700 rooms, Henderson Land Development said founding Lee's family will donate about HK$10 million to send anti-epidemic materials to nursing homes, among other assistance.

The move comes as Hong Kong authorities report new cases have doubled by 60 this month. And after Chinese President Xi Jinping said, the city's "main mission" is to stabilize and control the outbreak.

"President Xi Jinping's important instructions to support Hong Kong's fight against the epidemic, and the mobilization of relevant central departments to assist Hong Kong, have given a boost of confidence to all Hong Kong people," SHKP Chairman Raymond Kwok said in a statement late on Thursday. February.

Reuters reported in September that Beijing had given new mandates to powerful property tycoons in the global financial hub, telling them to devote resources and influence to supporting Beijing's interests.

For information, the Government said the Dorsett Tsuen Wan hotel in the northern New Territories city area will provide accommodation starting this Friday, for people who test positive for COVID-19 but have no symptoms or mild symptoms.