The interim standards under DTS are necessary to improve public health resilience within dormitories at the earliest opportunity to mitigate the spread of future diseases. As the risk and fall-out of large-scale disease outbreaks such as COVID-19 is non-trivial, there is urgency to help dormitories be more prepared as soon as practically possible.
Imposing the New Dormitory Standards (NDS) only upon the expiry of existing dormitories’ leases would result in existing dormitories remaining vulnerable to spreading of diseases for a much longer period of time.