4 | Thursday, January 21, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY CHINA Stranded students seize time for study and PE By LI LEI in Shijiazhuang coronavirus,” she said, adding [email protected] that the school had told psycho­ logical counselors to return to Eighteen­year­old Ren Jinhao campus ahead of the lockdown. raced across a basketball court To ensure a virus­free campus, before making a shot cheered by Pei said, it has implemented pre­ his teammates. ventive measures including fre­ In their sweat­soaked school quent body temperature checks uniforms, Ren and his classmates and the enforcement of rules on at a boarding school in Shijiazhu­ wearing masks, washing hands ang, Hebei province, have kept and maintaining social distance. their campus alive while the city Ren said he and some of his of 11 million has been in pandem­ classmates were worried about ic prevention lockdown. their parents after being kept on “We now have PE lessons on campus. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday,” “The residential community said Ren, who will take the where my parents live has been national college entrance exam labeled as a medium­risk region,” this summer. he said. “It helps protect our eyesight To ease such concerns, Ren and allows us to breathe fresh air said, head teachers had helped after staring at the smart black­ students get in touch with their board for hours.” parents through phone or video As part of a citywide lockdown calls, given that students at the to curb a recent surge in COVID­ school are not allowed to have Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet­ngor (second right) inspects a negative pressure ward at the North Lantau Hospital 19 cases, the Shijiazhuang Foreign mobile phones on campus. Hong Kong Infection Control Centre on Wednesday. The completion and handover ceremony of the construction project supported by the Language School has been sealed In addition to more PE classes, central government was held on the same day. INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT off from visitors since Jan 6. school authorities added more About 600 of its 2,000 students reading classes and appreciation and staff members, including 477 sessions for music and documen­ boarding students, were stranded taries to keep students engaged. inside, school authorities said. They have also arranged class Those on campus have been meetings to help students stay tested twice for COVID­19 since it informed about developments New infection control center was sealed off as part of a citywide outside. testing campaign to detect coro­ Alessandro Rojas Rivera, a Cos­ navirus carriers. ta Rican teaching Spanish at the All results came back negative, school, said he has encouraged the school said. his boarding students to learn a to help HK fight COVID­19 The citywide stay­at­home musical instrument or do some­ order, which has been extended thing new as a diversion from the three times over the past two pandemic. Temporary hospital built with central precious experience for the future At the time, more than 100 COV­ weeks, has amplified the home­ Having been in China for more construction of Hong Kong’s medi­ ID­19 patients could not be immedi­ sickness of students stranded on than nine years and witnessed government’s support has over 800 beds cal facilities, she said. ately hospitalized after testing campus. epidemic control measures in Adapting cutting­edge Modular positive, and continued to live with To ease students’ anxieties, many other countries, Rivera said By CHEN ZIMO in Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Integrated Construction methods, their families, posing a threat to the school administrators have tem­ he was confident about China’s [email protected] Council, said that the project the Guangdong provincial govern­ community. porarily increased the number of containment measures, which embodies how the central govern­ ment and the Shenzhen municipal Leung Chi­chiu, chairman of the PE classes as part of a broader have successfully stamped out Hong Kong’s healthcare system ment is always the backbone of the government completed the project, advisory committee on communica­ curriculum reform amid the lock­ many earlier outbreaks. has enhanced its defense against special administrative region’s anti­ which normally would take three to ble diseases of the Hong Kong Medi­ down. He has also sought to educate COVID­19 after a new temporary pandemic work. four years, in just four months. cal Association, said a designated “City authorities first said the his students about the relation­ hospital with over 800 beds built Ever since the pandemic broke The hospital, expected to be put in hospital for COVID­19 patients lockdown would be three days. It ship between personal freedom with the central government’s sup­ out in the city, the central govern­ use in February, consists of six ward could reduce the risk of cross­infec­ was then extended by a week and and society’s collective well­be­ port was handed over on Wednesday ment has made every effort to sup­ buildings, a medical center, and sup­ tion in public hospitals. more recently prolonged again,” ing. to the Hong Kong Special Adminis­ port Hong Kong in its fight, porting facilities. It provides 136 Both doctors noted that the three said principal Pei Hongxia, who “People in China will quickly trative Region government, raising including prioritizing the supply of wards, comprising 816 negative projects supported by the central started teaching at the school follow government directives the city’s complement of negative vaccines and providing resources pressure beds, which are designed government played an important when it was founded in 1994. because they can always see pressure beds to over 2,000. for mass testing, Huang noted. for patients with infectious diseases. role in Hong Kong’s fight against the “We’ve never sealed off the there’s a reason behind them,” The completion of North Lantau He urged Hong Kong society to Governor of Guangdong Ma Xing­ pandemic. school in its history before the Rivera said. Hospital Hong Kong Infection Con­ stand in solidarity to “take all neces­ rui and Party Secretary of Shenzhen The universal testing program in trol Centre, adjacent to AsiaWorld­ sary measures” to “clear the infec­ Wang Weizhong also attended the September activated Hong Kong’s Expo on Lantau Island, is the third tions” in the city and restore ceremony via online video confer­ mobilization capacity in facing an major project that the central gov­ economic and livelihood order. encing. outbreak and provided experience ernment has provided for the city to Hong Kong Chief Executive Car­ On Wednesday, Hong Kong report­ and facilities for large­scale testing, quell the health crisis. rie Lam Cheng Yuet­ngor thanked ed 77 new COVID­19 infections, they said. Together with the earlier con­ the mainland officials and construc­ bringing the tally to 9,797, while 659 “Without it, the current mass test­ struction of a mobile­cabin commu­ tion teams for their “hard work and patients remain in hospital. ing of high­risk areas might not nity treatment center in October, painstaking efforts” that “rendered Among them, 41 patients live in have been possible,” Leung said, the central government has provid­ Hong Kong great confidence in Yau Tsim Mong District of Kowloon, adding that the AsiaWorld­Expo ed an additional 1,800 beds. fighting against the pandemic”. the hardest­hit area of the recent Community Treatment Centre Previously, the central govern­ “The resources, nucleic acid tests outbreak, where the SAR govern­ helped avert the city’s healthcare ment had sent medical experts and and vaccines as well as the tempo­ ment has imposed mandatory tests system from collapsing during the resources for the city’s first mass rary hospital completed today, have on more than 70 buildings. third and fourth waves, when more testing program which tested 1.78 all demonstrated the central gov­ Ko Wing­man, former secretary than 500 cases were confirmed million residents within 14 days in ernment’s care to the SAR,” Lam for food and health, told China Daily within a week. September. said. that the temporary hospital can In a video speech at the comple­ With the speed of construction, help to overcome the previous prob­ Inside tion ceremony, Huang Liuquan, improved quality, and high safety lem faced by inadequate treatment deputy director of the Hong Kong standard, the project provided a facilities in July. Comment, page 9 Students dine separately at the Shijiazhuang Foreign Language School in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, on Monday. About 600 students and staff members were stranded on campus when the Unfounded criticisms expose an city went into COVID­19 prevention lockdown. WANG ZHUANGFEI / ignorance of Hong Kong’s situation, CHINA DAILY Justice secretary of HKSAR slams he wrote, noting as an example that the Daily Telegraph had wrongly characterized the case in question UK criticism of prosecutor choice as falling under the National Secu­ FDI: Benefits lead rity Law for Hong Kong. Cross called Perry “an inspired By GANG WEN in Hong Kong Apple Daily Jim­ international community that choice” to lead the prosecution, cit­ companies to invest [email protected] my Lai Chee­ Hong Kong’s judicial independence ing his extensive experience in han­ ying. The 10­day and rule of law have been under­ dling high­profile cases such as the Secretary for Justice Teresa hearing is set to mined. If that’s the case, the city bribery trial of former chief secre­ From page 1 produce more of the vehicles. Cheng Yeuk­wah on Wednesday begin on Feb 16. would need to put in good efforts to tary Rafael Hui Si­yan and the for­ Giuliano Menassi, CEO of Pirelli said she was appalled and shocked In light of the prove the opposite, he said.