Hong Kong to allocate 3.6 bln USD for fight against epidemic

China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government will propose to allocate around 28 billion Hong Kong dollars (3.6 billion U.S. dollars) for the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday.

The fund earlier announced would be no less than 25 billion Hong Kong dollars (3.22 billion U.S. dollars). Following further evaluation and experts's suggestion, the SAR government would propose to the Legislative Council on Friday for around 28 billion Hong Kong dollars, Lam said at a media session prior to the HKSAR Executive Council meeting on Tuesday morning.

On the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess in Japan, Lam said the SAR government had reached the majority of the 352 Hong Kong residents on board, and would arrange two chartered flights to bring them back.

Lam said a 14-day quarantine period will be imposed on these residents upon their arrival.

With three more cases reported on Monday, the total number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Hong Kong has increased to 60, the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said on Monday in a statement.(1 U.S. dollar equals 7.77 Hong Kong dollars)