The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, inspected the construction progress of the new quarantine facilities at Penny’s Bay on 13 July 2020.
Accompanied by the Secretary for Development, Mr Michael Wong, the Director of Architectural Services, Mrs Sylvia Lam and the Director of Civil Engineering and Development, Mr Ricky Lau, Mr Cheung was first briefed by technical staff on the construction progress, the use of the modular integrated construction method to speed up construction and the effective monitoring of construction with the help of drone inspection.
He was pleased to learn that construction of quarantine units on the piece of Government land at Penny’s Bay is making good progress and some 800 units will be available before the end of this month. Of these, the first batch of 100 units has already been handed over to the Department of Health and the second batch of 700 units has just been completed. The Department of Health is working at full steam in collaboration with relevant government departments, with a view to putting the newly constructed quarantine facilities in use as early as practicable.
As for building quarantine units at a Penny’s Bay site originally reserved for future tourism development, the relevant construction work started at the end of June. About 700 additional units are expected to be available before end-September.
He also took the opportunity to meet young graduates and professionals of the construction industry who have worked on this project. He pointed out that to deal with the rising unemployment rate in the industry, the Government earlier announced that salary subsidies would be provided to employers through the Anti-epidemic Fund to support and encourage them to employ graduates and assistant professionals.
Mr Cheung then inspected the construction sites, visited completed quarantine units and chatted with staff there. He thanked colleagues of the Architectural Services Department, the Civil Engineering and Development Department and other government departments as well as contractors for their hard work in increasing the number of quarantine units in Hong Kong within the shortest period of time.
“Given the rapid and volatile development of the epidemic, the community must stay vigilant. The Government will keep up its anti-epidemic effort under the three key principles of responding promptly, staying alert to the situation and working in an open and transparent manner,” Mr Cheung stressed.
“The provision of quarantine facilities is a very significant task of the Government’s strategy of keeping the epidemic in check through early identification, early isolation and early treatment. The Government will continue to closely monitor developments and make corresponding deployment of the quarantine facilities in light of the actual situation,” he said.
He also expressed appreciation to colleagues of the Department of Health, the Police Force, the Fire Services Department, the Civil Aid Service and relevant government departments for working together in planning the operation of the quarantine facilities. — Construction+ Online
