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| The makeshift hospital at the city's Asia World Expo exhibition centre will take in COVID-19 patients aged from 18 to 60. (Photo by=AFP/Isaac Lawrence) |
[아시아뉴스통신=레악카나 기자] Hong Kong opened a temporary field hospital with 500 beds on Saturday (Aug 1) to house stable COVID-19 patients as the city battles a new wave of virus infections.Since July the pathogen has returned, with some cases brought in by the tens of thousands of people who were exempted from a mandatory quarantine imposed on most arrivals.
The opening of the hospital comes a day after city leader Carrie Lam announced the postponement of upcoming legislative elections for a year, saying that the decision is purely to protect public health and has "nothing to do with politics".The new makeshift hospital set up at the city's AsiaWorld-Expo exhibition centre near the airport, will take in COVID-19 patients aged from 18 to 60. In a Saturday statement, the National Health Commission of China (NHC) said it has set up a team of 60 clinical laboratory staff and an "advance unit" will arrive in the city on Sunday.
The city recorded 125 new cases on Saturday, the eleventh day in a row above 100, with total infection numbers rising to 3,396. The death toll has risen from seven to 31 since July. China offered to send mainland testing staff to the city to carry out "large scale nucleic acid testing".
