Mainland Experts Greeted With Protests In Tai Po

A team of mainland experts tasked with helping Hong Kong ramp up its coronavirus tests were greeted with protests as they visited a laboratory in Tai Po.

Several police officers kept watch as a group of protesters shouted slogans outside an industrial building in Tai Po, where a private Covid-19 testing laboratory is located.

Seven members of a mainland team visited the laboratory set up by Sunrise Diagnostic Centre. They are in Hong Kong to help tackle the coronavirus situation here, hoping to expand the city’s testing capability to more than 200,000 people a day.

But one of the protesters, a woman who works in the industrial building, said she’s worried about safety issues.

“This dilapidated building is not suitable to house the laboratory. There’s no explanation why it’s here. We work here and we don’t have any protective gear, but we have to share the lifts with laboratory workers. There’s also a food factory in the building,” she said.

Tai Po district councillor Man Nim-chi who was also at the protest said landlords of other units in the building also opposed the setting up of a laboratory there.

Meanwhile, sources say a temporary hospital is likely to be built on a site close to the AsiaWorld-Expo on Lantau to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.

Construction will be assisted by another team of mainland experts who are due to arrive in Hong Kong from Hubei province.

Sources say authorities had considered building another temporary hospital on a site near the Children’s Hospital in Kai Tak, but plans to set up a temporary laboratory or other testing facilities there are also being considered.