Hong Kong announced relief measures which amounted to HK$137.5 billion ($17.7 billion) as it joins the global efforts to deal with the impact of the coronavirus or COVID-19 that has affected the city severely p[articularly in the areas of tourism and retail sectors.
The government said as part of those measures it was allocating HK$80 billion to help companies struggling with the impact of the disease to pay worker salaries.
Coronavirus crisis
The coronavirus outbreak has created a major stir around claiming the lives of over 80,000 people and infecting over 1,400,000 people globally. The WHO has described the outbreak as a pandemic and the virus originated from the city of Wuhan of Hubei province in China.
(With agency inputs)
