Mainland Chinese care worker at Covid-19 holding centre found dead in Hong Kong hotel | South China Morning Post
▻https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3175860/mainland-chinese-care-worker-covid-19-holding-centre
Coronavirus Hong Kong
Mainland Chinese care worker at Covid-19 holding centre found dead in Hong Kong hotel. A woman who came to Hong Kong from mainland China to look after elderly coronavirus patients as a temporary care worker at a holding centre was found dead in her hotel room on Thursday.
According to police, emergency personnel were called to B P International hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui at about 1.30pm after the woman was found unconscious.A force spokesman said she was certified dead at the scene by paramedics.The Social Welfare Department confirmed on the same day that the woman was one of about 760 care workers temporarily hired from the mainland to look after infected elderly residents in the city’s holding centres. It said she arrived in Hong Kong in March.
A spokesman for the department said it was saddened to learn of the death and had contacted the woman’s family to help arrange her affairs. He added there were no further details as the case was being investigated by police.
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The Post has learned that the woman was Zhang Xiu, aged 50, who came to Hong Kong from Guangxi province.A source said Zhang had told her colleagues on Thursday morning that she was feeling unwell.He said Zhang’s colleagues had visited her hotel after she failed to report for duty. Staff helped them access the room after they received no answer from her and found the 50-year-old unconscious in the bathroom, the source added.
She had stayed in the hotel since March 7 and worked at the Choi Wing Road Sports Centre in Kwun Tong, which had been turned into a holding centre for elderly coronavirus patients, according to another source.
The residential care industry has been considered one of the hardest-hit sectors by the city’s fifth wave of infections, with hundreds of facilities having previously reported outbreaks among staff and residents.
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26 Apr 2022On March 1, the Social Welfare Department announced it planned to hire 1,000 staff from the mainland to fulfil roles for three months at holding centres, community isolation facilities and quarantine camps to care for elderly residents, people with disabilities and other potential or confirmed cases.Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong revealed at the time that some care homes had seen almost all their staff and residents infected, adding that the industry was facing a manpower shortage as more employees either caught Covid-19 or had to be quarantined.
The workers can earn as much as HK$31,000 (US$3,970) a month if they are willing to take care of residents in isolation. Staff are expected to provide basic nursing care such as feeding elderly patients who are confined to their beds.Both Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and operators of care homes had previously said the recruitment process had faced challenges as candidates were concerned about Hong Kong’s Covid-19 outbreak. The lockdowns across the border also presented complications.
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