The Government announced today (August 9) that the site of the North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre (HKICC) will be released to facilitate the Airport Authority Hong Kong to commence the expansion works of AsiaWorld-Expo (AWE).
The Government will transfer facilities at the site to other suitable locations for reconfiguration and reuse in an orderly manner in order to implement the principle of making good use of facilities constructed with the support of the Central Government. The detailed arrangements are as follows:
1. The medical equipment, ancillary equipment, furniture and consumables in the HKICC will be allocated to the public hospitals in various hospital clusters of the Hospital Authority (HA) for their use;
2. The electrical and mechanical (E&M) equipment in the HKICC will be reused by phases in hospitals and healthcare facilities locally; and
3. The modular units of isolation wards constructed by the Modular Integrated Construction method will serve as site offices, rest rooms for site staff, material storage rooms and more in works projects of the Government and public organisations.
The medical equipment, ancillary equipment, furniture and consumables in the HKICC will be transferred shortly, while the E&M equipment and modular units of isolation wards will be relocated for reuse to facilitate the construction works of the AWE Phase 2 project scheduled for the first quarter of next year.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government expressed gratitude to the Central Government for its support in the construction of the HKICC during the epidemic. Since its commissioning in February 2021, the HKICC has been giving full play to its functions, with a peak of over 650 patients receiving treatment in the HKICC simultaneously during the fifth wave of the epidemic. With the subsiding epidemic situation and gradual resumption of normalcy in Hong Kong starting from early 2023, the HA made arrangements for patients with other infectious diseases of high transmissibility to undergo isolation and receive corresponding respective treatment in the HKICC in order to make full use of its isolation facilities. The HKICC was later put into standby mode in November 2023. During the entire operation period, the HKICC received more than 20 700 patients.
Up till now, the Government has announced the use of a number of community isolation and treatment facilities, and implemented the arrangements. Details are provided in the Annex.
It is the Government's goal to maintain the city's capacity to respond to changes in an epidemic situation, while taking into account Hong Kong’s economic, livelihood and social needs. The Government will continue to make subsequent arrangements for other community isolation and treatment facilities, releasing the sites in phases or utilising the facilities for other purposes. Announcements will be made and the implementation of related work will be carried out in a timely and orderly manner.
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