Attention duty announcers, radio and TV stations:
Please broadcast the following as soon as possible and repeat it at suitable intervals:
Members of the public are advised to report any street flooding that comes to their notice to the Drainage Services Department by calling the 24-hour drainage hotline on 2300 1110.
The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Hospital Authority (HA) will conduct admission screening for a random sample of institutional residents and patients admitted to psychiatric wards beginning tomorrow (May 12), to help mitigate the risk of community outbreak at an early stage.
"In view of the evolving global situation of COVID-19 and ongoing widespread community transmission in overseas countries, it is vital to maintain vigilance against potential COVID-19 outbreaks, in particular among the vulnerable groups, which may lead to prolonged hospitalisation and high mortality rate," the HA spokesperson said.
"Admission screening targeted at vulnerable groups will facilitate early case detection and public health intervention to reduce the risk of institutional outbreaks."
"Upon hospital admission, specimens will be collected from asymptomatic institutional residents, who can provide deep throat saliva, from Residential Care Homes for the Elderly, Residential Care Homes for Persons with Disabilities and nursing homes. Patients admitted to psychiatric wards will also be included in this screening programme," the spokesperson added that the new measure was recommended by the HA Central Committee on Infectious Diseases and Emergency Response and supported by the Centre for Health Protection.
At the same time, the "Enhanced Laboratory Surveillance" will be extended to include inpatients presented with influenza-like illness symptoms. The "Enhanced Laboratory Surveillance" for inpatients currently covers any inpatients with pneumonia. The spokesperson said that in view of the presentation of mild respiratory symptoms among COVID-19 patients, public hospitals will also extend the "Enhanced Laboratory Surveillance" to include inpatients presented with influenza-like illness symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat.
"While there has not been any local case for some days, the situation of COVID-19 can evolve fast and HA needs to frequently adjust its infection control strategy to combat the disease. The enhanced catchment of potential COVID-19 patients will help reduce the risk of local outbreaks and protect the vulnerable groups in the community," the spokesperson said.
The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, visited the Civil Service Training and Development Institute (CSTDI) today (May 11) to learn more about the planning and organising of various training and development programmes. He also met with the management and front-line training officers and encouraged them to keep up the efforts to provide suitable training programmes for civil servants.
During his meeting with the managerial staff, Mr Nip was briefed on the planning work on training on leadership and management, national studies and the Basic Law, innovation and technology application and language and communication.
Amid the changing environment in Hong Kong and the rising public expectations of government services, the CSTDI is committed to enhancing the leadership and management skills of civil servants to enable them to cope with various challenges ahead.
On the other hand, under the principle of "one country, two systems", civil servants of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region should have an accurate understanding of the constitutional order established under the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the Basic Law. There are also practical operational needs for civil servants to enhance their understanding about the systems and developments, as well as the social and economic situation in the Mainland, and to keep abreast of the national strategies and plans that may affect Hong Kong, so as to complement the country's development. The CSTDI has therefore enhanced substantially national studies and Basic Law training for civil servants in recent years.
Mr Nip also toured the facilities of the CSTDI such as the resource centre, the auditorium and classrooms for holding different types of courses, lectures and workshops. He said he was pleased to learn that the CSTDI has continued to provide civil servants with multimedia learning resources at the Cyber Learning Centre Plus during the epidemic, and is actively making preparations for the resumption of classroom training.
Before concluding his visit, Mr Nip met with some training officers and listened to them discuss their work and challenges facing them. He stressed that the Government attaches great importance to civil service training and hopes that civil servants have a sense of national identity, commitment to serving Hong Kong and a wide perspective as well as strive for excellence so as to cope with various challenges and provide better services to the public. He added that the civil service college, expected to be completed in 2026, will be equipped with new facilities for civil service training.
Mr Nip encouraged colleagues of the CSTDI to continue their persistence in striving for excellence so as to make contributions to the training and development of the civil service.
The Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Edward Yau, met the media today (May 11) on a new funding proposal to support Ocean Park. Following is the transcript of his remarks:
Reporter: Firstly, Secretary, is there any Plan B if lawmakers oppose this bailout plan in the Finance Committee meeting? The second question, what would happen if this sum of money runs out before the 12 months? If the tourist number is not really recovering in the short term, would it turn out that this bailout plan can't really help much and it’s just like delaying the inevitable that Ocean Park will be running out of money sooner or later?
Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development: Thank you. This is the plan. This is the plan to save Ocean Park from going bust, from being liquidated, so that it can continue to serve the Hong Kong community.
This is a revised plan different from the original plan we put forth on January 20 this year. There was a plan to redevelop Ocean Park into the next stage. But one thing has changed the whole scenario, which is the epidemic. Soon after we submitted the plan to the Finance Committee in late February (should be Economic Development Panel in late January), within a week, Hong Kong was hard hit by COVID-19. The park has since closed for more than three and a half months during which there was zero income and zero visitors. We also see great difficulties even the park is to be re-opened in the not-too-distant future. I think the whole tourism landscape, both locally, across the boundary and globally will undergo major changes.
So in submitting this revised plan, we hope to serve two purposes. One is to avoid the park (from being) in a form of liquidation. That's why we need to help them to repay the commercial loans and to delay the repayment of the government loans. On the other hand, we need to give them the contingency money so that they can keep the park running while we are sorting out the future (of the park). So there will be, at a later stage, another plan to take the park forward, but I think circumstances have required (us) to have a major rethink (first), in particular taking into account the drastically changed business operation and tourism scene which we have seen since the COVID-19 (outbreak).
Reporter: Is it delaying the inevitable?
Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development: I think we are trying to catch up with the new circumstances because if we are unable to formulate a plan for the park to take things forward, they will continue to suffer from the pressure of reduced tourism and reduced (number of) visitors, and at the same time difficulties in maintaining the park open. I think that's the catching up we have to do.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
In response to an incident in which underage persons claimed that they were conducting news reporting activities at a protest in Tsim Sha Tsui yesterday (May 10), a Government spokesman today (May 11) expressed deep concern and strongly urged underage persons to stay away from high-risk protests and stop participating in any news reporting activities at scenes of protests.
The spokesman said, "Underage persons are easily influenced by others to defy the law or take part in high-risk events. Parents, schools and teachers have the responsibility to protect the personal safety and well-being of children and students and remind them not to attend or participate in protests, which in recent months have often ended up in violent clashes.
"It is extremely dangerous for underage persons to conduct news reporting activities at scenes of protests in the capacity of student journalists. One can imagine how difficult it is for a child aged 12 or 13 to handle the complex and ever-changing situation at the scene. We are very worried that there are organisations arranging for young students to work as volunteer reporters. They totally disregard the young students' safety and are extremely irresponsible."
During a protest in Tsim Sha Tsui yesterday, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl told the Police that they were volunteer reporters carrying out news reporting activities at the scene. In view of their safety, the Police took them to a police station without arresting them. The Police subsequently contacted their guardians to pick them up. The guardians also understood why the boy and the girl were taken to the police station.
The spokesman stressed, "Protests and acts of violence have taken place in various districts again recently. Young people have less life experience and may be easily incited to commit crimes. They may not know the serious consequences of breaking the law. We have the responsibility of reminding underage persons not to participate in any illegal act that may jeopardise their future. Society should stop this undesirable trend from spreading and spare no effort to curb violence."