Central Govt-Aided Emergency Medical Facilities in HK Ready for Operation

The emergency hospital and the Lok Ma Chau makeshift quarantine facility were delivered on May 6 after 51 days and nights of effort.

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region was hit by the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2022. The Central government approved assisting construction of the emergency and makeshift hospitals in Lok Ma Chau to help the region improve its treatment capacity.

More than 20,000 builders from all over the country contributed to the projects.

At the delivery ceremony on May 6, Michael Wong Wai-lun, Secretary for Development of the Hong Kong SAR government, expressed his gratitude and said that the quarantine and medical facilities greatly enhance the region's capability to fight the pandemic.

The Central government-aided emergency hospital is a respiratory infectious disease specialist hospital. It features 1,000 negative pressure beds and three operating rooms, as well as radiology, a medical laboratory, a central supply room, and blood transfusion departments. It is also equipped with supporting facilities such as a drug storehouse, air compressor rooms, oxygen stations, washrooms, garbage storage rooms, negative pressure traction pump rooms and sewage treatment stations.

Covering about 112,100 square meters, the Lok Ma Chau makeshift quarantine facility is able to provide 10,056 beds and has a registration building, a discharge building and a testing center as well as supporting facilities such as CT rooms, warehouses and pharmacy storehouses, a sub-control center convergence room, a medical refuse station and a sewage treatment station.

Construction of the emergency hospital and the makeshift quarantine facility started on March 6 and 22, and the two facilities passed final inspections on April 20 and 25 respectively.

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)