About 4.24 million passengers will travel in and out of Hong Kong during the May Day holidays, up 16 percent from the same period of last year, the Immigration Department of Hong Kong said here Monday.
To cope with possible congestion, the department will deploy extra officers and join Police, Customs and the MTR Corporation to set up a joint command center at Lo Wu to oversee traffic and handle any incidents.
The department anticipated the peak period falls from April 30 to May 5 when 1.66 million passengers, an average of 276,000 daily, will pass through Lo Wu control point.
The busiest day at Lo Wu will be May 1 when 173,000 passengers arrive, while the number of departing passengers is expected to reach a peak of 170,000 on May 3.
Traffic at Lok Ma Chau control point will also be heavy with a forecast of 670,000 passengers, a daily average of 111,000. Both arrival and departure traffic will be very busy on May 1 at Lok MaChau.
Due to the swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the United States, Hong Kong has stepped up surveillance measures at boundary control points as more swine flu cases have been confirmed in North America.
Airlines arriving in Hong Kong had been asked to broadcast health advice on all direct flights coming from the affected places and passengers with respiratory symptoms are urged to approach Port Health officers at the Airport for follow-up investigations.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has upgraded the alert level to "serious" and demanded possible swine flu cases to be reported to authorities.
The swine flu, which is believed to be a new strain, has killed more than 100 people and sickened thousands across Mexico and claimed another 20 lives in the United States.
Source: Xinhua
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