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Apr exports value down 13%

The value of Hong Kong's total exports decreased to $338.3 billion in April, down 13% on the same month last year, the Census & Statistics Department announced today.   The value of imports of goods decreased 11.9% to $374.9 billion for the same period.   A trade deficit of $36.6 billion, or 9.8% of the value of imports, was recorded in April.   Comparing the three-month period ending April with the preceding three months on a seasonally adjusted basis, the value of exports rose 15.4%, while that of imports increased 10.7%.   The Government noted that the value of merchandise exports declined further from a year earlier in April. Exports to the Mainland, the US and the European Union all shrank and exports to other major Asian markets recorded decreases of varying degrees.   Looking ahead, it added that the weakness in the advanced economies will continue to weigh on Hong Kong's export performance, though the expected faster recovery of the Mainland economy should

Temporary hospital opens Feb 26

The Hospital Authority today said North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre (HKICC) will open on February 26.   It will mainly accept mild or moderate COVID-19 patients aged between 16 and 65 with appropriate clinical conditions.   Princess Margaret Hospital Associate Consultant (Medicine & Geriatrics) Dr Jacky Chan told reporters at the HKICC media tour ahead of its opening that different categories of patients will be admitted.   “The first category is those new COVID-19 cases from the community, who can be sent here directly from the community. Second, we can receive step-up cases from the AsiaWorld-Expo (AWE). Because nowadays we have a certain amount of patients staying in the AWE requiring further medical assessment, if the HKICC is opened, some of these patients can be transferred here, instead of sending them out to the acute hospitals."   North Lantau Hospital Deputy Hospital Chief Executive Dr Michael Wong explained that the HKICC's laboratory with fully automatic advanced equipment, will conduct COVID-19 tests more effectively and efficiently.   “This machine could process a lot of specimens in a certain period of time. For an eight-hour shift, we could process nearly 1,000 specimens. If we perform it overnight, 24 hours, we could process nearly 4,000 specimens over the day.   “So the throughput is very high. We could perform a lot of testing. We actually have a high demand for testing. Now every patient admitted needs to have COVID-19 screening, so some of these specimens will come here for the testing, not only for HKICC patients.”   Six ward blocks provide 816 isolation beds. In the first phase of opening, 48 isolation beds in Block F are scheduled to receive patients on February 26.
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