An officer with Hong Kong's Immigration Department checks passengers' information with a ground crew before allowing stranded Hong Kong residents to enter the departure hall to board a chartered flight for Hong Kong, Wuhan Tianhe airport in Wuhan, China, on March 4, 2020. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
HONG KONG - The government will launch on Wednesday a two-day evacuation operation to bring home on chartered flights more than 500 Hong Kong residents from the coronavirus ravaged Hubei province.
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A special team, led by the city's Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip Tak-kuen and Director of Immigration Erick Tsang, who also led the previous evacuation operation, will depart from Hong Kong International Airport after meeting the press at 8:30 am Wednesday.
Four chartered flights to Wuhan have been arranged on Wednesday and Thursday to pick up the Hong Kong residents who have remained in Xiaogan, Xianning, and Huangshi in Hubei province
As in the previous operation, passengers will receive multiple temperature checks before boarding the planes. Those who have a fever or develop respiratory syndromes will not be allowed to board.
Upon arrival in Hong Kong, the passengers will be put under home quarantine for 14 days. Public health experts said the epidemic in Hubei province has subsided.
The second operation will not include patients of some 70 people stranded in Wuhan because Hong Kong has run out of space in the quarantine facilities to house them.
The government dispatched four chartered flights on March 4 and 5 to bring back 469 Hong Kong residents from Hubei province. Most of them were stranded in Wuhan.
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Among them, a 38-year-old woman was confirmed positive she was undergoing quarantine in Chun Yeung Estate in Fo Tan. The others have been released from quarantine after the 14-day observation.
More than 3,400 Hong Kong residents are still stranded in 37 cities or counties across Hubei, according to the Hong Kong government.
A total of 14 Hong Kong residents in Hubei were diagnosed with COVID-19. Among them, a 77-year-old man died in February and 10 have been discharged from the hospital.
