Update on supplies from Mainland
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     The Task Force on Supplies from the Mainland led by the Transport and Logistics Bureau (TLB) has been working closely with the Guangdong Provincial Government and the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government to explore various means to stabilise the supply of goods from the Mainland to Hong Kong.
 
     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 28) that Shenzhen operated 179 cargo vessel trips and transported around 14 780 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cross-boundary supplies by water from November 25 to yesterday (November 27), equivalent to about 65 490 tonnes of goods, of which around 40 TEUs (about 370 tonnes) were fresh food and around 14 740 TEUs (about 65 120 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 1 299 490 TEUs of cross-boundary supplies have been transported, equivalent to about 6 147 800 tonnes of goods, of which around 2 940 TEUs (about 24 830 tonnes) were fresh food and around 1 296 550 TEUs (about 6 122 970 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 9 682 rapid nucleic acid tests were conducted for the period from November 25 to yesterday, among which 20 cases that tested preliminarily positive or indeterminate were found. The TD has passed the cases to the Department of Health for follow-up.
 
     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/Monday, November 28, 2022
Issued at HKT 18:00

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