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 16) that Shenzhen operated 47 cargo vessel trips and transported around 5 490 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of cross-boundary supplies by water yesterday (December 15), equivalent to about 21 110 tonnes of goods, of which around 10 TEUs (about 50 tonnes) were fresh food and around 5 480 TEUs (about 21 060 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 1 380 500 TEUs of cross-boundary supplies have been transported, equivalent to about 6 552 540 tonnes of goods, of which around 3 230 TEUs (about 27 320 tonnes) were fresh food and around 1 377 270 TEUs (about 6 525 220 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 4 188 rapid nucleic acid tests were conducted yesterday, among which 29 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/Friday, December 16, 2022
Issued at HKT 18:00
Issued at HKT 18:00
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