Update on supplies from Mainland
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A spokesperson for the TLB said that the "Sea Express" water transportation service from the Mainland to Hong Kong has been fully launched and its capacity is rising to increase the supplies of fresh food, other daily necessities and manufacturing materials. The current supply of fresh food from the Mainland is stable.
The spokesperson said today (November 18) that Shenzhen operated 61 cargo vessel trips and transported around 5 140 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cross-boundary supplies by water yesterday (November 17), equivalent to about 24 080 tonnes of goods, of which around 10 TEUs (about 100 tonnes) were fresh food and around 5 130 TEUs (about 23 980 tonnes) were non-fresh food, according to information from the Mainland authorities.
Since the launch of services from the three ports in Shenzhen since February 18 to yesterday, a total of around 1 251 370 TEUs of cross-boundary supplies have been transported, equivalent to about 5 912 780 tonnes of goods, of which around 2 790 TEUs (about 23 540 tonnes) were fresh food and around 1 248 580 TEUs (about 5 889 240 tonnes) were non-fresh food.
Meanwhile, to avoid a spillover of the epidemic, the Transport Department (TD) arranges for dedicated staff to conduct rapid nucleic acid tests, using nasopharyngeal swabs for specimen collection, for cross-boundary goods vehicle drivers at various land boundary control points. Only drivers with a negative result are allowed to enter the Mainland. A total of 3 907 rapid nucleic acid tests were conducted yesterday, among which no cases that tested preliminarily positive or indeterminate were found.
The TLB will closely monitor the situation and co-operate with the Mainland authorities to facilitate and implement various measures to ensure both smooth cross-boundary land transport and a stable goods supply to Hong Kong, while reducing the risk of epidemic transmission in both the Mainland and Hong Kong.
Ends/Friday, November 18, 2022
Issued at HKT 18:00
Issued at HKT 18:00
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