Hong Kong says 20,000 hotel rooms earmarked for quarantine as COVID cases surge

Sun Hung Kai Properties

18/02/2022 01:09

HONG KONG, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Hong Kong has identified more
than 20,000 hotel rooms for quarantine accommodation, leader
Carrie Lam said on Friday, as property developers piled in to
support the global financial hub's battle to curb a surge in
COVID-19 cases.
    Lam said 21 hotels had expressed interest in turning their
facilities into isolation venues, exceeding "by a large margin
the government's original target of 7,000 to 10,000 rooms".
    Quarantine facilities in Hong Kong have reached capacity and
hospital beds are more than 90% full as cases spiral, with some
patients, including elderly, left lying on beds outside in
chilly, sometimes rainy weather.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2US1BY
    Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP)  0016.HK  said late on
Thursday it could provide 1,000 rooms in two hotels for
isolation facilities and would broadcast a government
promotional video on vaccine passports in its major malls. 
    New World Development  0017.HK  said it planned to provide
around 700 rooms, while Henderson Land Development  0012.HK 
said its founding Lee family would donate HK$10 million ($1.3
million) to send anti-epidemic materials to elderly homes, among
others.  
    The moves come as Hong Kong authorities report new cases
have multiplied 60 times so far this month, and after Chinese
President Xi Jinping said the city's "overriding mission" was to
stabilise and control the outbreak.
    "President Xi Jinping’s important instructions to support
Hong Kong's fight against the epidemic, and mobilisation of
relevant central departments to help Hong Kong, have given a
confidence boost to all Hong Kong people," SHKP Chairman Raymond
Kwok said in a statement late on Thursday.
    Reuters reported in September that Beijing had given a new
mandate to the global financial hub's powerful property tycoons,
telling them to pour resources and influence into backing
Beijing's interests.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2Q1146
    The government said the Dorsett Tsuen Wan hotel in the
city's northern New Territories region would provide
accommodation from Friday for people who tested positive for
COVID-19 but had no or mild symptoms.
    
($1 = 7.7987 Hong Kong dollars)

 (Reporting by Clare Jim, Farah Master and Anne Marie Roantree;
Editing by Stephen Coates)
 ((annemarie.roantree@thomsonreuters.com; +852 97387151; Reuters
Messaging: annemarie.roantree.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))