Update on supplies from Mainland

     The Task Force on Supplies from the Mainland led by the Transport and Logistics Bureau (TLB) has been working closely with the Guangdong Provincial Government and the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government to explore various means to stabilise the supply of goods from the Mainland to Hong Kong.
 
     A spokesperson for the TLB said that the "Sea Express" water transportation service from the Mainland to Hong Kong has been fully launched and its capacity is rising to increase the supplies of fresh food, other daily necessities and manufacturing materials. The current supply of fresh food from the Mainland is stable.
 
     The spokesperson said today (December 19) that Shenzhen operated 142 cargo vessel trips and transported around 12 450 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cross-boundary supplies by water from December 16 to yesterday (December 18), equivalent to about 60 980 tonnes of goods, of which around 30 TEUs (about 280 tonnes) were fresh food and around 12 420 TEUs (about 60 700 tonnes) were non-fresh food, according to information from the Mainland authorities.
 
     Since the launch of services from the three ports in Shenzhen since February 18 to yesterday, a total of around 1 392 960 TEUs of cross-boundary supplies have been transported, equivalent to about 6 613 510 tonnes of goods, of which around 3 270 TEUs (about 27 590 tonnes) were fresh food and around 1 389 690 TEUs (about 6 585 920 tonnes) were non-fresh food.
 
     Meanwhile, to avoid a spillover of the epidemic, the Transport Department (TD) arranges for dedicated staff to conduct rapid nucleic acid tests, using nasopharyngeal swabs for specimen collection, for cross-boundary goods vehicle drivers at various land boundary control points. Only drivers with a negative result are allowed to enter the Mainland. A total of 9 678 rapid nucleic acid tests were conducted for the period from December 16 to yesterday, among which 71 cases that tested preliminarily positive or indeterminate were found. The TD has passed the cases to the Department of Health for follow-up.
 
     The TLB will closely monitor the situation and co-operate with the Mainland authorities to facilitate and implement various measures to ensure both smooth cross-boundary land transport and a stable goods supply to Hong Kong, while reducing the risk of epidemic transmission in both the Mainland and Hong Kong.