Beach where elderly man drowned was not staffed by lifeguards due to COVID-19

The Stanley beach where an elderly man drowned Sunday was not staffed by lifeguards due to cutbacks in services since COVID-19 began.

According to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), lifeguard services are currently provided at just 16 of the city’s 41 public beaches.

Turtle Cove Beach in Stanley, where Lee Chun-ming’s body was found Tuesday, is not among the list.

The 66-year-old left his North Point home around 2 pm on Monday and went swimming alone at the beach.

His wife, worried that he hadn’t arrived home at night, alerted police. Rescue crew carried out an overnight search.

On Tuesday, a body was spotted floating about 100 m from Turtle Cove Beach. It was later identified to be Lee’s.

Vice-chairman of the Hong Kong and Kowloon Lifeguards’ Union, Nick Wu, told HK01 that the LCSD currently has only about 100 lifeguards on its roster. The number is far lower than the 900 normally employed during the usual summer months.

As a result, the lifeguards are overworked on duty and have little time for breaks, Wu said.

On Facebook, the union wrote that it has urged the LCSD to hire more lifeguards to prevent such tragedies from happening. Coconuts has reached out to the department for comment.

The LCSD warns the public not to swim at beaches without lifeguard services, a note on its website states.

Beaches reopened in Hong Kong in April as the city saw a downturn in COVID-19 cases.