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 (December 23) that Shenzhen operated 43 cargo vessel trips and transported around 5 650 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cross-boundary supplies by water yesterday (December 22), equivalent to about 30 030 tonnes of goods, of which around 90 TEUs (about 960 tonnes) were fresh food and around 5 560 TEUs (about 29 070 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 1 409 810 TEUs of cross-boundary supplies have been transported, equivalent to about 6 697 830 tonnes of goods, of which around 3 410 TEUs (about 28 800 tonnes) were fresh food and around 1 406 400 TEUs (about 6 669 030 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 4 227 rapid nucleic acid tests were conducted yesterday, among which 37 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. From tomorrow (December 24) onwards, the TLB will provide information about the supplies from the Mainland through press releases on a need basis.
Ends/Friday, December 23, 2022
Issued at HKT 18:00
Issued at HKT 18:00
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