COVID-19: Hong Kong identifies 20,000 hotel rooms for quarantine

On Feb 18, 2022

Hong Kong has identified more than 20,000 hotel rooms for quarantine accommodation, as property developers piled in to show support as COVID-19 cases surge.

Leader Carrie Lam said on Friday, “Dozens of patients waited for treatment in the parking lot of a hospital in the working-class district of Cheung Sha Wan, on the Kowloon peninsula on Thursday, after there was no more room inside the medical centre that serves 400,000 people.

“Quarantine facilities in Hong Kong have reached capacity and hospital beds are more than 90% full as spiral cases, with some patients, including elderly, left on beds outside in chilly, sometimes rainy weather.”

The moves come as Hong Kong authorities report new cases have multiplied 60 times so far this month, and after Chinese President Xi Jinping said the city’s overriding mission was to stabilize and control the outbreak.

Hong Kong is expected to report at least 3,600 new infections on Friday, with another 7,600 preliminary positive cases.

CK Asset Holdings, owned by billionaire Li Ka-shing, said it would provide more than 3,000 hotel rooms in four hotels. Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) said it could provide 1,000 rooms.

Both developers said they would broadcast a government promotional video on vaccine passports in its major malls.

Kamila/Reuters