Chief Executive Carrie Lam today visited Penny’s Bay and AsiaWorld-Expo on Lantau Island to inspect the COVID-19 quarantine and community treatment facilities as well as a temporary hospital under construction.

At the newly completed Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre Phase 2, Mrs Lam toured some units, including a barrier-free unit, and the medical and command posts as well as received a briefing on the facility’s construction and management.

She was pleased to note that the construction of phases 3 and 4 is making good progress and is expected to be completed by the end of this year, when a total of 3,500 units would be available at the centre.

Together with other quarantine centres, there will be more than 4,000 units in total across the city.

Mrs Lam then left for AsiaWorld-Expo where she was briefed on the temporary hospital to be built next to it.

Adopting modular integrated construction technology, the project is expected to be completed in about four months, and pre-construction preparatory work is underway.

On completion, the project is expected to provide negative pressure wards that can accommodate over 800 beds and related medical facilities.

Mrs Lam also inspected the construction work of the community treatment facility expansion at Hall 8 to Hall 11, including the newly built enclosed cubicle and the medical command post.

Hall 1 and Hall 2 were retrofitted with a community treatment facility of 900 beds earlier, which currently serves as a backup as the epidemic situation eases. The expansion work at Hall 8 to Hall 11 is expected to be completed in about four weeks to provide some 1,000 additional beds.

Mrs Lam praised the construction team for their ongoing hard work in overcoming various challenges to meet the new treatment facilities’ needs.

She also inspected the Social Welfare Department's quarantine facility at Hall 5. Together with those at Hall 3, Hall 6 and Hall 7, there are a total of 640 beds in the facility for use by residents at residential care homes for the elderly and residential care homes for people with disabilities for quarantine purposes.

Mrs Lam thanked the central government for supporting Hong Kong to expand the central treatment facilities and build a temporary hospital, as well as the Guangdong and Shenzhen governments for assisting with the two projects’ implementation.

She praised colleagues from relevant departments and contractors for their devotion and high efficiency.

The Chief Executive appealed to members of the public to continue to fully comply with various social distancing measures, in particular with the approach of the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival long holidays.