The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

     Exchange Fund Bills tender results:
 

 
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     Hong Kong Monetary Authority tenders to be held in the week beginning August 17, 2020 :
 

     The effective exchange rate index for the Hong Kong dollar on Tuesday, August 11, 2020 is 106 (down 0.1 against yesterday's index).

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The Hospital Authority spokesperson today (August 11) announced the passing away of two patients confirmed with COVID-19 infection today.

     An 87-year-old female patient (case number: 2951), admitted to United Christian Hospital on July 27 due to persistent cough, succumbed at 12.28pm today.

     An 80-year-old male patient (case number: 3367), admitted to Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital on July 30 due to chest infection, fever and cough, succumbed at 1.20pm today.

     The hospitals concerned were saddened by the passing away of the patients and would offer necessary assistance to their family members.

     Including the above two patients, 58 COVID-19 patients have passed away in public hospitals so far.

     In view of the latest developments of the epidemic and the referrals by the Department of Health (DH), the Home Affairs Department (HAD), subsequent to the extension of the scope of the COVID-19 Community Testing Scheme on August 7, will provide a one-off voluntary free virus testing service to residents of individual buildings and housing estates.
      
     The buildings and housing estates involved are located in various districts and include Chung Yuen House of Chuk Yuen North Estate in Wong Tai Sin District; Tai Kung Building of Cosmopolitan Estates in Tai Kok Tsui, Yau Tsim Mong District; Mei Fung House of Mei Lam Estate and Hin Hing House of Hin Keng Estate in Sha Tin District; Nam Hang Tsuen and Chak Sing House of Tin Chak Estate in Yuen Long District; Choi Fu House of Choi Ming Court and Block 6 of Fu Ning Garden in Tseung Kwan O, Sai Kung District; Sau Shan House of Cheung Shan Estate in Tsuen Wan District; Tak Sui House of Tak Long Estate in Kowloon City District; and Cheung Hong Estate and Ching Chung House of Cheung Ching Estate in Kwai Tsing District.
      
     A spokesman for the HAD said, "These buildings and housing estates, each of which has confirmed cases in a few households, are regarded as higher-risk residential buildings and were referred to the HAD by the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the DH. In order to accord priority to residents of buildings with more confirmed cases and conduct testing for them as soon as possible, the testing scheme of this round will mainly cover individual buildings, so as to concentrate our efforts on helping the CHP to identify the invisible transmission chain at an early stage."
      
     The testing scheme will cover a total of 22 buildings and some village houses, involving about 44 000 residents. The HAD will distribute throat-swab sampling kits and registration forms to residents of Chung Yuen House at Chuk Yuen North Estate and Tai Kung Building at Cosmopolitan Estates together with the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWGHs) and Mong Kok Kai Fong Association Limited Chan Hing Social Service Centre respectively tomorrow (August 12), and will successively extend the service to other buildings and estates. The management offices of relevant estates or buildings will duly inform the residents of the testing scheme schedule. As in the previous round of the testing scheme, registration forms from the residents will be handled by the partner charities and social service organisations, while specimen bottles will be passed to the testing agency, Sunrise Diagnostic Centre Limited, for testing.
      
     Apart from the TWGHs and Mong Kok Kai Fong Association Limited Chan Hing Social Service Centre, other charities partnering with District Offices include the Board of Directors of Yan Chai Hospital, Lok Sin Tong, Haven of Hope Christian Service and Pok Oi Hospital. The HAD expresses deep gratitude to the charities for their co-operation in launching the testing scheme in a short period of time and their selfless participation in anti-epidemic work.

     The Government announced today (August 11) that according to the batching arrangement for paper registrations under the Cash Payout Scheme, the third batch of eligible people (i.e. people born in 1971 to 2002) who registered on or before August 1, involving about 170 000 persons, will receive payment or notifications for cheque collection starting from tomorrow (August 12), i.e. five days earlier than the original scheduled date of August 17.

     People who have submitted paper forms to banks (Form 1) will receive payment through their specified personal bank accounts. Those who have submitted registration forms to Hongkong Post (Form 2 in paper or electronic version) will receive notifications for cheque collection from Hongkong Post via SMS or letters. They may collect the order cheques in person from the post offices they specified during the period (about one month) set out in the notifications. The cheques are valid for six months from the issue date.
      
      In view of the developments of the epidemic, Hongkong Post has announced that the post offices in Wong Tai Sin District, where the epidemic is relatively severe, will continue to be suspended from services until August 16. These post offices are Choi Hung Chuen Post Office, Chuk Yuen Post Office, Fu Shan Post Office, Lok Fu Post Office, Ngau Chi Wan Post Office, Tsz Wan Shan Post Office and Wong Tai Sin Post Office. All other post offices will maintain their normal opening hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but their closing hours will be advanced to 4pm. Moreover, as a postman working for Wan Chai Delivery Office had earlier tested positive for COVID-19, Hongkong Post has closed Wan Chai Post Office up to August 15 upon the advice of the Department of Health. The times for receiving notifications for cheque collection by some people (in particular those who have chosen to collect cheques at the post offices in Wong Tai Sin District and Wan Chai Post Office) will therefore be affected. The Government appeals for the public's understanding on this. The public may call the Hongkong Post enquiry hotline at 2921 2222 to enquire about the service hours of individual post offices.

     A Government spokesman reminded the public that as banks will send notifications including SMS to registrants as soon as possible after making payment, there is no need to rush to check account balances at banks' branches or personal banking centres (including checking transaction records by using passbook update machines). People will also have sufficient time to collect cheques from the post offices and there is no need to rush for collection of cheques at the post offices on the first one or two days. In view of the latest developments of the epidemic, people should avoid gathering at banks or post offices so as to reduce the risk of infection.

     The Cash Payout Scheme started to accept registration on June 21 this year. As of yesterday (August 10), the Scheme had disbursed payment or issued notifications for cheque collection to over 5.9 million eligible people. Together with the some 170 000 persons mentioned above, the cumulative number of recipients will account for about 90 per cent of the eligible people. The spokesman encouraged those eligible persons who have not yet registered to register electronically through banks, and payment will be received about one week after registration. People who choose to submit paper registration forms will receive payment or notifications for cheque collection about two weeks after registration.

     The public may visit the website of the Scheme (www.cashpayout.gov.hk) or call 18 2020 for detailed information on the Scheme.