Tenants To Move Into Quarantine Estate In August

A Fo Tan public housing estate that has been used as a coronavirus quarantine centre since February will be cleared, disinfected, and touched up at the end of July, with the aim of finally allowing residents to start moving in in late August.

Thousands of families had been preparing to move in to Chun Yeung Estate in Fo Tan when the government decided to use it as a quarantine centre starting on February 20.

“The Government deeply understands that the use of the estate as a quarantine centre in the past few months has caused much impact and inconvenience to prospective tenants, and that they have been looking forward to moving in the estate as soon as possible”, a spokesman said in a statement.

He added that the estate had played a very important role in the fight against the coronavirus, saying it had “effectively preventing the widespread transmission of virus in the community.”

The 4,800 units will be cleared and disinfected before the estate is handed back to the Housing Authority (HA), which will then inspect the flats and conduct any necessary restoration work.

The spokesman said the HA would try its best to inform prospective residents when they can move in by early July.

However, he said it’s likely that tenants will have to move in in two batches, with the first starting in late August, and the next starting from the end of October.

He explained that some flats may require more extensive restoration works before people can move in.

The government said the Chun Yeung Estate is no longer needed as a quarantine centre because the Covid-19 outbreak has been “easing gradually with the number of confirmed cases maintaining at low level.”

At the same time, the construction of new quarantine facilities has been progressing smoothly at Penny’s Bay in Lantau, and 700 units are expected to be ready for use by the end of next month.

After Chun Yeung Estate is taken out of the equation, the spokesman said there will still be around 1,500 quarantine units with around 3,000 beds “which is estimated to be able to cope with any need arising from future outbreak.”

Some 7,700 people have been quarantined at Chun Yeung Estate up to now.