The vacant Heung Yee Kuk school in Mui Wo has been reopened to store material for the planned Penny’s Bay quarantine centre.

Health Department officials have denied it will be used as a quarantine facility itself, Apple Daily reported.

The sudden flurry of activity earlier this week, bedding, tables and chairs piled up in the school ground, prompted concerns from local residents that the long disused site may be deployed as a quarantine centre.

Security guards at the school gate said some local residents alarmed they had called police.

The Health Department said it was using the school to store furniture and other items ahead of the anticipated opening of the Penny’s Bay facility next month.

The Apple Daily noted that some of the items, including mattresses, were stored uncovered in the schoolgrounds and had no protection from the sun or the rain.

The Penny’s Bay centre, now under construction near Disneyland at a cost of HK$194 million, will host 800 units, according to Health Secretary Sophia Chan.

The school, officially known as the New Territories Heung Yee Kuk Southern District Secondary School, has been closed since 2007. It is one of more than 100 vacant school sites across the city.