Health Chief: Hotel Will Boost Quarantine Capacity

Health Secretary Sophia Chan said on Saturday that a hotel had been found to provide hundreds of rooms for quarantine use as the government works to bolster capacity ahead of an expected fourth wave of coronavirus cases.

Speaking on a radio programme, Chan said the hotel rooms would compliment new, dedicated quarantine facilities being set up at Penny's Bay and Lei Yue Mun Park as the government targets a quarantine capacity of 4,000 by the end of the year.

She did not say which hotel had been chosen or how it had been found.

Chan said on Friday that the government was building quarantine capacity as part of a wider programme to prepare for a new wave of coronavirus cases that could be even worse than the recent third wave.

The administration is also looking to build testing capacity and offer regular, voluntary tests to front-line workers in various sectors considered to be at high risk.

On Saturday, Chan said health officials were still deciding how often to test two groups of workers, taxi drivers and wet market employees.

Care home staff will be tested every two weeks, but Chan said no decision had been made yet on whether to offer tests to residents of the homes.