(To watch the whole press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

A total of 533 Hong Kong residents will come back to Hong Kong in batches by four chartered flights arranged by the Government in the coming two days.

Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Patrick Nip said 440 of them are in Wuhan, while 93 are in 10 other cities in the province.

He noted the 93 people are those who urgently need to come back. They include pregnant women, candidates of the upcoming Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination, and patients who need medical treatment in Hong Kong.

Mr Nip said the Government started planning to bring residents back to Hong Kong upon receiving their requests for assistance.

“We have to realise that there are more than 3,800 Hong Kong people seeking assistance and who are staying in Hubei, and in more than 30 cities.

“On the first day of receiving these requests, we started all the planning and the contingencies for transferring these people back to Hong Kong. But we have to consider the right moment to do so.

“We have to take into account the epidemic situation in the Mainland, the situation in Hong Kong and we also have to carefully consider the public health risk in transferring a large group of people from one place to another.”

He added that the Government has to ensure there are sufficient quarantine facilities to meet the 14-day compulsory quarantine requirement.

Last but not least, the Government needs to carefully assess the impact on the city’s hospitals, Mr Nip said.

“We have to expect that or we could not rule out the possibility that some of these people returning to Hong Kong might become confirmed cases.”