The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Hospital Authority (HA) welcomed the announcement of the Hong Kong Cancer Strategy by the Food and Health Bureau today (July 26). The HA will align with the priority and direction stipulated in the Cancer Strategy to strengthen the services provided to cancer patients and carers through hardware and software improvements, cancer treatment and care, as well as the service of the Hong Kong Cancer Registry.

     An HA spokesperson said, "In terms of hardware, the HA is building new oncology centres in different hospitals through the 10-Year Hospital Development Plan, as well as utilising the funding provided by the Government to upgrade and procure new medical equipment. Regarding software, the HA will recruit additional manpower and streamline multidisciplinary collaboration so as to provide timely and appropriate treatment to patients.
      
     "Besides, the HA is also strengthening the treatment and care services for cancer patients, including the widening of drug formulary coverage and extending the cancer case manager programme to more types of cancer, as well as enhancing support to palliative patients and cancer survivors.
      
     "The Hong Kong Cancer Registry will capture and collate more staging information of different types of cancer for regular release to facilitate surveillance and prevention of cancer with more precise data."
      
     Meanwhile, the HA is formulating a Strategic Service Framework for Cancer Services, aiming at further enhancement of cancer services provided in public hospitals.

     The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today (July 26) announced that a trace amount of malachite green was found in a mud carp sample. A follow-up is in progress. 

     A CFS spokesman said, "The CFS collected the above-mentioned mud carp sample from a shop in Central for testing under its routine Food Surveillance Programme. The test result showed that the sample contained a trace amount of malachite green at a level of 1 parts per billion."
 
     The spokesman said the CFS had informed the vendor concerned of the irregularity and instructed it to stop the sale of the affected product. The Centre is tracing the source of the product concerned. 

     Malachite green is a type of industrial dye and has been used for treating infections in fish. Malachite green is possibly both genotoxic and carcinogenic. According to the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), there is no safe level of residues of malachite green or its metabolites in food that represents an acceptable risk to consumers. Currently, malachite green has been prohibited for use in food producing animals in many countries. According to the Harmful Substances in Food Regulations (Cap 132AF), no food sold in Hong Kong is allowed to contain malachite green. Offenders will be prosecuted and will be liable to a fine of $50,000 and to imprisonment for six months upon conviction.
 
     The CFS will continue to follow up on the incident and take appropriate action. An investigation is ongoing.

     The Highways Department (HyD) today (July 26) signed a contract with Bouygues Travaux Publics for the central tunnel under the Central Kowloon Route (CKR) project. The works mainly comprise the construction of an approximately 2.8-kilometre dual 3-lane CKR central tunnel; the construction of approximately 41 metres and 33m cut-and-cover tunnels in Yau Ma Tei and Ma Tau Kok respectively; the construction of a ventilation shaft, an adit and foundation for a ventilation building in Ho Man Tin; and other associated works. The forecast total of the costs is about $6.226 billion.
 
     The Director of Highways, Mr Jimmy Chan, said at the contract signing ceremony that the contract for the central tunnel is the highest value New Engineering Contract (NEC) adopting a target cost contract option awarded by the Government so far. The NEC emphasises mutual trust and co-operation between the contracting parties and has provisions to enhance cost effectiveness and reduce risk.
 
     The CKR will be a 4.7 km dual three-lane strategic trunk road in Central Kowloon linking the Yau Ma Tei Interchange in West Kowloon with the road network of the Kai Tak Development and Kowloon Bay in East Kowloon. The CKR, anticipated to be commissioned in 2025, will relieve traffic congestion in the Central Kowloon road network. It is estimated that the journey time between Yau Ma Tei and Kowloon Bay during peak hours will be reduced to about five minutes. A total of six works contracts including the present one have been awarded under the CKR project with a total value of about $23.2 billion.

  

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

        In light of possible mass gathering activities in Yuen Long tomorrow (July 27), the Hospital Authority (HA) announces the following service arrangements today (July 26):
 
       The Yuen Long Donor Centre of the Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Centre (BTS), located at Yuen Long Landmark will be closed tomorrow. Blood donors can choose other donor centres. Please visit the BTS website www5.ha.org.hk/rcbts/hkindex.asp for details.
 
       In addition, service at the Yuen Long Shui Pin Wai Estate Community Nursing Centre of the New Territories West Cluster (NTWC) at Ying Shui House of Yuen Long Shui Pin Wai Estate will also be temporarily suspended tomorrow. The Centre has already contacted patients with appointments scheduled tomorrow for rescheduling arrangements.
     
     The NTWC has also arranged designated transportation and residences for staff in need. Clinical placements for student nurses in the five hospitals of the Cluster (Tuen Mun Hospital, Po Oi Hospital, Tin Shui Wai Hospital, Castle Peak Hospital and Siu Lam Hospital) has been rearranged.  Student nurses are not required to report for duty at the said hospitals this weekend.

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, the Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Lau Kong-wah, Deputy Director of Social Welfare (Services), Mr Lam Ka-tai, and the Assistant Commissioner for Transport (New Territories), Ms Stella Lee, at a media session today (July 26):
       
Reporter: Chief Secretary, do you feel that the police had, sort of, succumbed to the threat made by rural communities in Yuen Long and that’s why they are banning the protest tomorrow? And is the government expecting any violent clashes tomorrow? And secondly, given the rather huge consensus in society that they want the government to set up a CoI to look into what happened in the past month, would the government consider revisit your decision? Thank you.
 
Chief Secretary for Administration: The police has already explained clearly yesterday the reasons why they objected to the application primarily on safety grounds and also in light of the local circumstances. No question of succumbing to any pressure at all. It’s always in the public interest, in overall safety of Hong Kong residents, particularly people living in Yuen Long. As you can see, Heung Yee Kuk and the District Council also expressed grave concern over the situation. So that’s why I am here. The appeal board is meeting at the moment, so irrespective of the outcome, as you can see we have taken a very serious attitude towards tomorrow’s move, whether there is a procession or not, we can’t rule out the possibility of a large number of people turning up. As I said, if the appeal board upholds the decision of the police, then the procession is not lawful. So I just remind participants that you know, do take this fully into account and also their own safety is very important. The second question is you asked about police performance basically, is that right?
 
Reporter: No, my second question was about- will the government revisit its decision …
 
Chief Secretary for Administration: Oh I see. The question of the CoI has been thoroughly explained before. We believe that it is better at this stage to pursue the idea through the existing mechanism of the Independent Police Complaints Council- the IPCC,  as this is an established mechanism operating on the basis of the findings of CAPO – Complaints Against Police Office. But I must say that we are fully aware of these public sentiments – a very strong body of opinion in the public sector urging the government to establish a commission. So we are engaged now, if I put it rightly, in a reflective process on the whole issue – put it this way. But our position has been explained clearly that we believe it is better to be done, pursued, through the existing mechanism.
  
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)