The Hospital Authority today said the AsiaWorld-Expo (AWE) community treatment facility is expected to open on August 1, further boosting the authority’s bed capacity.

COVID-19 patients who are between 18 and 60 and in stable condition will stay at the facility, easing the pressure on public hospitals.

At a press briefing this afternoon, Tin Shui Wai Hospital Consultant (Accident & Emergency) Dr Larry Lee said the facility will provide 500 beds.

Dr Lee added that the Lei Yue Mun community isolation facility, which opened last week, has 350 beds.

“The bed capacity that the Hospital Authority can handle is about 1,500. In some sense we actually increased our capacity by 50%," he said.

“I think this is quite a significant increase.”

Regarding medical manpower, Hong Kong University Department of Medicine Clinical Professor Prof Ivan Hung pointed out that as the AWE facility will house stable patients, more patients can be under the care of one doctor.

Prof Hung said: “You can have more patients under one doctor’s care, because the patients are all very stable and they have no symptoms - if you compare to those in hospitals, where most patients are having fever and they are actually on medication, and they are relatively sick.”