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 (August 15) that Shenzhen operated 156 cargo vessel trips and transported around 14 660 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cross-boundary supplies by water for the period from August 12 to yesterday (August 14), equivalent to about 69 230 tonnes of goods, of which around 20 TEUs (about 150 tonnes) were fresh food and around 14 640 TEUs (about 69 080 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 813 440 TEUs of cross-boundary supplies have been transported, equivalent to about 3 929 170 tonnes of goods, of which around 2 250 TEUs (about 19 070 tonnes) were fresh food and around 811 190 TEUs (about 3 910 100 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 8 278 rapid nucleic acid tests were conducted for the period from August 12 to yesterday, among which 15 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.
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