Hong Kong's Covid-19 isolation venues to become training centres for youth groups, construction industry

One of Hong Kong’s purpose-built Covid-19 isolation centres will be converted to a training centre for uniformed youth groups while another will become a venue to train construction industry workers, the government has announced.

covid covid-19 quarantine tsing yi isolation — Tsing Yi Covid-19 quarantine facility. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

The Development Bureau will modify the community isolation facilities at Tsing Yi and San Tin for short-term uses which will be “beneficial to society, the economy and people’s livelihood,” the government said in a press release on Thursday.

The arrangements will last for about a year.

The centre at Tsing Yi will be open for youth uniformed groups to hold training on flag-raising ceremonies, foot drill and other activities. The Home and Youth Affairs Bureau will monitor the usage.

At San Tin, the Construction Industry Council will hold training courses and trade tests, including on-site training for the Modular Integrated Construction method. The owner of the site has agreed to continue lending it for this purpose .

Modifications will start this month.

Facilities arrangement after epidemic

The government announced last month that an isolation centre at Tam Mei in Yuen Long would be temporarily used to house construction workers brought in from overseas.

The emergency hospital at Lok Ma Chau, which was built with Beijing’s backing during the epidemic, has been used for radiology since late April.

Tsing Yi quarantine facilities. File photo: Supplied.

As Omicron spread through the city in early 2022, the Hong Kong government ramped up construction of isolation facilities to house Covid-19 patients with mild or no symptoms. While the land was lent by local developers, the building materials and other supplies were mainly provided by the mainland government.

Hong Kong’s fifth wave, which peaked last March with upwards of 70,000 new Covid cases per day, was also its most deadly, causing the city to have the highest Covid-related death rate in the developed world, according to Bloomberg.

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