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 (August 25) that Shenzhen operated 13 cargo vessel trips and transported around 1 350 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cross-boundary supplies by water yesterday (August 24), equivalent to about 4 420 tonnes of goods, all of which 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 857 500 TEUs of cross-boundary supplies have been transported, equivalent to about 4 126 650 tonnes of goods, of which around 2 270 TEUs (about 19 200 tonnes) were fresh food and around 855 230 TEUs (about 4 107 450 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 2 096 rapid nucleic acid tests were conducted yesterday, among which five 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/Thursday, August 25, 2022
Issued at HKT 18:00
Issued at HKT 18:00
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