Coronavirus: hundreds of medical staff from mainland China set to treat Hong Kong Covid-19 patients after government invokes emergency law
- Beijing is finalising plan to mobilise hundreds – if not thousands – of mainland medical personnel to operate temporary facilities in the city, sources say
- Covid-19 crisis continues to escalate, with health officials revealing they recorded more than 17,000 reported infections on Wednesday
The crisis continues to escalate, with health officials revealing they had recorded more than 17,000 reported infections on Wednesday, including both confirmed and preliminary-positive test results. They could only confirm 8,798 new cases on Thursday because of the backlog of test samples.
Sources said the decision to use the Emergency Regulations Ordinance was taken at a meeting of the chief executive’s de facto cabinet on Wednesday to provide the legal basis for allowing mainland doctors and nurses to practise in a temporary hospital to be built at the Lok Ma Chau Loop near the border, as well as in the city’s few isolation facilities if needed.
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Hong Kong launches vaccine pass, tightens social distancing with 17,000 new Covid-19 cases
Apart from exempting mainland medical professionals from licensing rules to practise in Hong Kong with immediate effect, the gazettal of the law on Thursday also enables construction workers from across the border to build new makeshift hospitals and community isolation facilities in the city without the usual work visas.
Among all the facilities under construction, the one located in Tsing Yi could be completed as early as next week, an insider added, and the demand for extra manpower would be huge during the coming compulsory universal testing scheme.
A government statement on Thursday confirmed that Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu would be given the power under the ordinance to grant certain people and projects exemptions from various licensing, approval, registration and standards-related requirements, among others. This would allow the government to make better use of the mainland’s support and resources in fighting the pandemic.
“It is foreseeable that the number of newly confirmed cases of Covid-19 will continue to escalate exponentially and go beyond the epidemic control capacity of the government,” the statement said.
