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 As a surge in COVID-19 cases overwhelms Hong Kong's healthcare
facilities, authorities have deployed mainland medical and
construction workers, as well as building materials, to speed up
efforts to contain an outbreak of the virus.
Drone footage over the rural Hong Kong district of Lok Ma Chau close
to the border with China showed a huge building site next to fish
ponds and lush wetlands, with the glistening skyscrapers of Shenzhen
towering in the background.
Dozens of makeshift tents and a steady stream of trucks taking
materials across the new bridge were also visible as building at the
site ramps up to construct a temporary hospital with 1,000 beds and
quarantine facilities for 10,000 people.
In Tsing Yi, another area of Hong Hong's New Territories district,
drone footage showed an isolation facility where a bare-chested man
leaned against a door outside one unit taking in the sunshine, as
people in full hazmat suits walked past.
That facility, which was built in seven days and consists of rows of
hundreds of individual units with one window and a white chair
outside, will house around 3,900 COVID-19 patients.
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 The facilities shown in the drone images are at
locations the government has said were earmarked
for the COVID-19 centres.
Total infections in the global financial hub
since the coronavirus emerged in 2020 have
surged to about 600,000 cases and more than
2,500 deaths - most in the past two weeks.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday a
compulsory mass testing scheme was still being
considered but the government had not decided on
a time frame given the huge scale of the
operation, with the focus now on more isolation
and temporary care facilities for elderly
patients.
(Reporting By Joyce Zhou and Tyrone Siu; Writing
by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Frank Jack
Daniel)
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