Second Hongkonger Dies In Hubei, Evacuation Resumes

Several hundred Hong Kong people were to start flying home from Hubei on Wednesday on evacuation flights organised by the government, as officials announced that a second SAR resident trapped in the province had died after catching Covid-19.

Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Patrick Nip said he had been informed that a Hong Kong resident, who had been in a serious condition in a Hubei hospital, died on March 20.

The patient was a 62-year-old woman.

The death of a 77-year-old Hong Kong man had been reported in Wuhan just over a month ago.

The SAR government had chartered four flights which brought around 470 people back from Wuhan and Hubei province around three weeks ago, but about 3,500 Hong Kong residents were still trapped in various cities in the area.

Some 280 of these are now expected to return to the SAR on two flights on Wednesday, and around 220 more on another two flights on Thursday.

The latest evacuations come as mainland authorities lift their lockdown of Hubei province, allowing people outside of Wuhan to leave the area for the first time in two months, as long as they are healthy.

Nip is leading the mission, and speaking at Chek Lap Kok before flying to the mainland he said that around a quarter of those coming home on the government flights are aged 16 or under.

Pregnant women and people with urgent medical needs are also being brought home, he said.

The minister said the returnees will be required to quarantine themselves for 14 days at home, unlike the previous batches who were taken to a quarantine centre.

He said this is because of the "improving" coronavirus situation on the mainland and because many of the evacuees have been in areas far away from the virus epicentre of Wuhan and are therefore considered to be "low risk".

But Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki, who's also a medical doctor, said it is alarming that the returnees are being allowed to go home.

Kwok said they still pose a risk to the community and should be sent to quarantine camps, because the mainland authorities no longer consider people who test positive for Covid-19 to be actual patients, unless they also show symptoms of the illness.