The site of a temporary Covid-19 hospital built in Hong Kong during the pandemic will be transferred to airport authorities for expansion of the AsiaWorld-Expo exhibition centre.
The government on Friday pledged to use the prefabricated isolation wards and equipment from the North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre elsewhere as the site in Tung Chung would be released to the Airport Authority.
“The medical equipment, ancillary equipment, furniture and consumables in the hospital will be allocated to the public hospitals,” the government said.
“The electrical and mechanical equipment and modular units of isolation wards will be relocated for reuse to facilitate the construction works of the AsiaWorld-Expo Phase 2 project scheduled for the first quarter of next year.”
The Tung Chung site will be the eighth Covid-19 treatment or isolation centre to be converted into non-healthcare use following the end of the pandemic.
Some of the others have been converted into dormitories for foreign labour or as a national education base.
A facility in the Lok Ma Chau Loop is being used to provide diagnostic imaging and check-up services.
The Tung Chung infection control centre began operating in February 2021 and was built with the central government’s support.
The facility, managed by the Hospital Authority, had a capacity for more than 650 patients at its peak during the fifth wave of the pandemic in 2022.
As the city returned to post-pandemic normality last year, the hospital was used to isolate and treat patients with other highly transmissible infectious diseases until it was put into standby mode in November.
A medical source said patients with tuberculosis, mpox, chickenpox and superbugs were treated there.
The temporary hospital handled more than 20,700 patients during its nearly three years of operation.
Electrical and mechanical equipment would be reused in local hospitals and healthcare facilities, the government said.
The prefabricated isolation wards would be used as site offices, restrooms and storage space in projects of the government and public bodies, it added.
The administration also said it would announce arrangements for other community isolation facilities in a timely and orderly manner.
“It is the government’s goal to maintain the city’s capacity to respond to changes in an epidemic situation, while taking into account Hong Kong’s economic, livelihood and social needs,” it said.
Lawmakers earlier slammed the government for wasting public money in maintaining the community isolation facilities that had been sitting idle.
Future uses have yet to be found for only two community isolation facilities built during the pandemic, at Penny’s Bay and Kai Tak.
The Development Bureau in April said the standby facility at Penny’s Bay cost about HK$1.7 million a month to maintain, while the monthly expenditure for the Kai Tak one was about HK$400,000.
The government plans to expand AsiaWorld-Expo, which is located near the airport on Lantau Island, and the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai to increase large-scale exhibition space in Hong Kong by more than 40 per cent to over 220,000 square metres.
Chan Hoi-yan, chairwoman of the Legislative Council’s health services panel, said she understood it was “strange” to have an infection control centre next to AsiaWorld-Expo, which hosts international conventions and foreign visitors.
But Chan noted the medical facilities were of high quality, including isolation wards with negative pressure systems, and she said she hoped the government could relocate the centre to another site.
“It is a small-scale hospital. I do not suggest segregating it into different areas and purposes,” Chan said.
Tim Pang Hung-cheong, a patients’ rights advocate with the Society for Community Organisation NGO, said it was reasonable to release the site for AsiaWorld-Expo’s expansion but the government had to stay prepared.
“In case of another pandemic in the future, the government has to find a site where its functions can be converted instantly for infection control,” he said.
“For example, if AsiaWorld-Expo is expanded, can [that part of] this site be converted for a place for incoming travellers or returning residents to undergo infection control procedures or quarantine?”
Additional reporting by Sammy Heung
