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 5) that Shenzhen operated 181 cargo vessel trips and transported around 15 710 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cross-boundary supplies by water from December 2 to yesterday (December 4), equivalent to about 85 350 tonnes of goods, of which around 40 TEUs (about 360 tonnes) were fresh food and around 15 670 TEUs (about 84 990 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 1 332 080 TEUs of cross-boundary supplies have been transported, equivalent to about 6 320 600 tonnes of goods, of which around 3 020 TEUs (about 25 540 tonnes) were fresh food and around 1 329 060 TEUs (about 6 295 060 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 9 633 rapid nucleic acid tests were conducted for the period from December 2 to yesterday, among which eight cases that tested preliminarily positive 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, December 5, 2022
Issued at HKT 18:00
Issued at HKT 18:00
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