The Government announced today (June 26) that as the COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong started to stablise, the use of Chun Yeung Estate in Fo Tan as quarantine centre will be ceased in end July. After clearing and thoroughly disinfecting the relevant units, the Estate will be immediately handed over to the Hong Kong Housing Authority.
The Housing Authority will then carry out detailed inspection to the condition of the Estate, and conduct relevant restoration works and acceptance testing as soon as possible. As there are altogether some 4 800 units in the five blocks of the Estate, it takes time for the Housing Authority to complete all the restoration works and acceptance testing for the whole estate. While the restoration works required for individual block or unit varies, the Housing Authority will make the best endeavour to complete the relevant work as soon as possible and notify prospective tenants of the latest arrangements in early July, with a view to facilitating their preparation work including arrangement of school placement for children in the coming school year. At present, it is estimated that prospective tenants of the Estate will move in by two batches, striving for intake of the first batch prospective tenants commencing in late August, whereas intake of prospective tenants of units in the blocks requiring more extensive restoration works starting from end October this year.
A Government spokesman said the COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong had been easing gradually with the number of confirmed cases maintaining at low level, and among people who needed to be housed in quarantine centres over the past month or so, most of them were Hong Kong Residents returning from places with higher infection risk. In addition, the Government has been constructing quarantine facilities at the government site in Penny’s Bay with good progress, targeting to provide some 700 additional units by end July. By then, after discounting the quarantine units provided by the Estate, there will be around 1 500 quarantine units in total (with around 3 000 beds) in Hong Kong, which is estimated to be able to cope with any need arising from future outbreak.
The Government deeply understands that the use of the Estate as 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. The quarantine centre located in the Estate provided thousands of units, playing a very important role among quarantine facilities over the past few months and effectively preventing the widespread transmission of virus in the community. The Government would like to express heartfelt gratitude to all prospective tenants for their patience and understanding, which has greatly facilitated the anti-epidemic work in Hong Kong.
The Government has been using the Estate as quarantine centre since February 20. So far, over 7 700 people have been quarantined at the Estate. Apart from close contacts of confirmed patients, confinees at the Estate also include returnees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, Hubei Province, as well as people returning from various overseas places in recent days.
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