The Leisure and Cultural Services Department announced today (April 27) that the tennis courts at Shek Ku Lung Road Playground in Wong Tai Sin District will be temporarily closed from May 3 to August 31 for resurfacing wor… read more
The Government today (April 27) exercised the power under the Prevention and Control of Disease (Compulsory Testing for Certain Persons) Regulation (Cap. 599J) to make a “restriction-testing declaration” (declaration) effective from 3pm, under which people (hereafter referred to as “persons subject to compulsory testing”) within the specified “restricted area” in Kwai Chung (i.e. Hong Yam House, On Yam Estate, Kwai Chung, see Annex) are required to stay in their premises and undergo compulsory testing. Persons subject to compulsory testing are required to stay in their premises until all such persons identified in the “restricted area” have undergone testing and the test results are mostly ascertained. The Government aims at finishing this exercise at around 11am tomorrow (April 28). The operation may be extended depending on test results.
A Government spokesman said, “Under Cap. 599J, the Government can, according to the needs of infection control, make a ‘restriction-testing declaration’. Having reviewed a basket of factors, including the viral load in sewage, the information of relevant positive cases, and other circumstantial factors, and conducted a risk assessment, the Government decided to make a ‘restriction-testing declaration’ for the relevant area.”
The Government will set up temporary specimen collection stations at the “restricted area” and request persons subject to compulsory testing to undergo testing before 9pm today. Arrangements will be made for persons subject to compulsory testing to undergo a nucleic acid test at specimen collection stations where dedicated staff will collect samples through combined nasal and throat swabs. Persons subject to compulsory testing must stay at their place of residence until all test results are ascertained to avoid cross-infection risk. The Government will arrange for door-to-door specimen collection for people with impaired mobility and elderly persons. All persons in the “restricted area” who have tested positive in the past three months, including positive cases identified either by nucleic acid tests recorded by the Department of Health (DH) or by rapid antigen tests that have been self-declared to the DH, will not be required to undergo testing in this compulsory testing exercise.
The Government spokesman said, “We understand that this exercise will cause inconvenience to the public. The Government has made arrangements to carry out testing for all persons present in the ‘restricted area’ as soon as possible. The aim is to strive to complete testing of all identified persons subject to compulsory testing and confirm the results, and finish the exercise at around 11am tomorrow. The Government will make a public announcement when the declaration expires officially. In the cases in which employees are unable to go to work because of the declaration, the Government hopes their employers can exercise discretion and not deduct the salaries or benefits of the employees.”
If staying in the “restricted area” will cause unreasonable hardship to individuals who are not residents in the area when the declaration takes effect, government officers may exercise discretion and allow that person to leave the area after considering the individual circumstances. That person must have followed the instructions to undergo testing and leave his/her personal information for contact purposes.
According to the compulsory testing notice to be issued today, any persons other than those specified above who had been present at the above building for more than two hours from April 21 to April 27, 2022, even if they were not present in the “restricted area” at the time when the declaration took effect, must undergo compulsory testing on or before April 29, 2022. As a mutant strain is involved, for prudence’s sake, vaccinated persons and persons who have recently been tested are also required to undergo testing.
For the 2022 Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) candidates who are within the “restricted area” and need to sit the HKDSE on the following day, or examination personnel who need to take up invigilation duties for HKDSE on the following day, the Government appeals to them to go to the temporary specimen collection stations setup within the “restricted area” before 8pm today and present to the prescribed officer the relevant documents (including the identification documents and HKDSE admission forms, or a certification letter issued by the school of the examination personnel) proving their identities. These HKDSE candidates and examination personnel will be given priority testing with a view to enabling them to obtain test results on the following day as early as possible. The priority testing arrangement also applies to the family members who live together with these HKDSE candidates and examination personnel, so as to identify those HKDSE candidates and examination personnel who have become close contacts of confirmed cases for making quarantine arrangement.
If any HKDSE candidate or examination personnel needs to leave the “restricted area” for the examination centre before the declaration is revoked, he/she can make a request to the prescribed officers within the “restricted area”. The prescribed officer may allow the candidate or the examination personnel to leave the “restricted area” after verifying his/her testing result(s) and recording the relevant information. For the safety of all candidates and examination personnel, only those candidates and examination personnel who have obtained negative test results will be allowed to enter the examination hall. For details, please read the relevant information issued by the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority earlier www.hkeaa.edu.hk/DocLibrary/HKDSE/PPT_2022DSE_compulsory_testing_arrangements_eng.pdf.
The Government has set up a hotline (Tel: 6232 1772) which started operation at 3pm today for residents restricted by the declaration to make enquiries and seek assistance. The Social Welfare Department will also provide assistance to the affected persons.
The Government appeals to persons subject to compulsory testing for their full co-operation by registering and undergoing testing, and waiting for the results patiently at home. The Government will strictly follow up on whether the persons concerned have complied with the compulsory testing notices and “restriction-testing declaration”. Any person who fails to comply with the compulsory testing notices commits an offence and may be fined a fixed penalty of $10,000. The person would also be issued with a compulsory testing order requiring him or her to undergo testing within a specified time frame. Failure to comply with the compulsory testing order or the “restriction-testing declaration” is an offence and the offender would be liable to a fine at level 5 ($50,000) and imprisonment for six months. read more
The Government announced today (April 27) that in order to fight the coronavirus epidemic, the Environmental Protection Department and the Drainage Services Department in collaboration with the cross-disciplinary team of the Univers… read more
Following is a question by the Hon Luk Chung-hung and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, in the Legislative Council today (April 27):
Question:
The Government has, in view of the outbreak of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 epidemic, engaged contractors/operators to provide virus testing and vaccination services. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the list of contractors/operators engaged to provide the aforesaid services, as well as the number of service contracts awarded to them;
(2) whether open tendering exercises were conducted for the relevant service contracts; if so, of the relevant mechanism and assessment criteria; if not, the reasons for that; among the awarded service contracts, of the mechanism in place to ensure that the contractors/operators protect labour rights and interests, for instance, whether the contents of the employment contracts they sign with employees have been regulated to prevent the occurrence of false self-employment;
(3) whether it has evaluated the standard of the services provided by the aforesaid contractors/operators, including the quality and efficiency of such services; if not, of the reasons for that; and
(4) whether mechanism is in place to encourage other healthcare institutions to join as the contractors/operators for providing the aforesaid services?
Reply:
President,
The Government has been implementing a risk-based virus testing strategy and ramping up testing capacity significantly, with a view to achieving “early identification, early isolation and early treatment” through “restriction-testing declaration”, compulsory testing and voluntary testing, to cut transmission chains in the community as early as possible. At the same time, COVID-19 vaccination is a strong and effective measure for stopping the spread of the virus and preventing severe cases, hospitalisation and death. It is an important pillar of the Government’s anti-epidemic strategy. We strive to increase the vaccination rate, with an aim to expeditiously building up a protection shield for Hong Kong. In order to quickly and extensively provide testing and vaccination services in the community, the Government provides the needed services through various service providers and partnering with a number of healthcare organisations.
My consolidated reply to the various parts of the question raised by the Hon Luk Chung-hung is as follows:
Virus testing services
For the 2021-22 financial year, the testing service procured by the Food and Health Bureau, including 19 community testing centres (CTCs), mobile specimen collection stations set up in various districts and “restriction-testing declaration” operations, amounts to over 10 million tests. In mid-2021, the Food and Health Bureau allocated the CTCs to nine operators after going through a competitive procurement process. Invitations for quotations were sent to all eligible testing institutions when the CTCs were allocated to nine operators (full list at Annex 1). The nine operators are also responsible for supporting the testing strategy which evolves as required by the latest epidemic situation, by flexibly setting up mobile specimen collection stations and supporting “restriction-testing declaration” operations. The operators are responsible for providing one-stop service from setting up swabbing booths, specimen collection to virus testing.
All operators are in the “Local COVID-19 nucleic acid testing institutions recognised by the Hong Kong SAR Government” list maintained by the Department of Health (DH) and have passed the External Quality Assessment Programme for COVID-19 testing of the DH and possess relevant laboratory accreditation, including:
(i) The private laboratory must possess relevant medical laboratory accreditation, that is, meeting the requirement of quality management standard for medical laboratory accreditation of ISO 15189:2012 or the College of American Pathologists. Recognised private laboratories in general possess accreditation status of the Hong Kong Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (HOKLAS) of the Hong Kong Accreditation Service (HKAS). The accreditation process of medical laboratory is independent and rigorous, which holistically standardises the quality (including standard operating procedures, management systems), personnel qualifications, biosafety, etc. of the private laboratories to ensure compliance with internationally recognised standards; and
(ii) To ensure that the testing platforms and reagents used by private laboratories are up to the standard, they must participate in the monthly Continuous Quality Assessment Programme conducted by the Centre for Health Protection (CHP). Samples including some involving variant strain provided by the CHP are sent to private laboratories regularly, whose results will be evaluated. Contractors who do not meet the standards may be terminated from the contract.
The Government has also taken into account various factors such as the testing capabilities, past experience and performance of the relevant private laboratories when conducting the competitive procurement exercise.
To enhance regulation, the Food and Health Bureau has requested all institutions on the list of “Local COVID-19 nucleic acid testing institutions recognised by the Hong Kong SAR Government” to attain accreditation by HOKLAS or its Mutual Recognition Arrangement Partners within 2021, with COVID-19 nucleic acid testing included in the scope of accreditation. We consider that the requirement has struck a balance between enhancing the quality of local testing services and ensuring the availability of sufficient testing capacity in Hong Kong to cope with the next wave that could come at any time. The allocation of the next round of CTCs will also be carried out through a competitive procurement process. All private laboratories that meet the accreditation requirement may participate in the bidding.
Vaccination services
The COVID-19 Vaccination Programme led by the Government was launched in February 2021 to provide members of the public with two safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, namely the Sinovac and Comirnaty vaccines. The Government has all along provided multiple channels to encourage members of the public to get vaccinated as early as possible, mainly through operating Community Vaccination Centres (CVCs) and through the networks of private healthcare organisations and private doctors to provide vaccination services to the public.
To mobilise sufficient healthcare manpower to support the smooth operation of CVCs, which had 29 in operation at its peak, the Government partnered with a number of healthcare professional bodies, medical organisations and private hospitals (collectively as partner healthcare organisations thereafter) to take charge of the medical-related tasks at the CVCs, including providing the medical staff to administer the vaccines for members of the public and also handling medical-related tasks, such as dilution of the vaccines (if applicable), providing emergency medical services, explaining medical information and handling of enquiries, as well as the medical support at the vaccination booths and resting areas, etc.
The goal of setting up CVCs is to provide the public with extensive and convenient vaccination services in the community in a safe and effective manner. Hence, the partner healthcare organisations participating in the operation of CVCs need to have a certain scale, healthcare network, experience, mobilisation capability and resources. In early 2021, the Government issued invitation documents to some 40 healthcare organisations which met the above criteria and selected our partner organisations out of them. The factors for consideration included the capability of the organisation concerned to operate the CVC and provide the relevant vaccination services, as well as its experience and resources available for mobilisation, etc. The list of healthcare organisations which operated CVCs in the past/is now operating CVCs is at Annex 2.
On the other hand, around 1 700 private doctors are providing Sinovac vaccination services for members of the public at around 2 500 private clinics under the Vaccination Subsidy Scheme (Note 1), out of which around 160 doctors have also participated in providing the relevant vaccination service at non-clinic setting (i.e. outreach vaccination service). Moreover, 11 private healthcare organisations have joined the BioNTech Vaccination Pilot Scheme (Note 2) and provide the public with the Comirnaty vaccine at 42 service locations. The DH has invited more private healthcare organisations to participate in the second phase of the Pilot Scheme. Upon completion of the Pilot Scheme, the DH will take into account the experience gained and consider regularising the scheme and implementing it more extensively. On the other hand, residential care homes for the elderly, residential care homes for persons with disabilities and nursing homes can invite visiting medical officers who joined the Residential Care Home Vaccination Programme to visit the institution and provide Sinovac vaccination services to the residents (Note 3). To encourage more private healthcare organisations to provide COVID-19 vaccination services, the DH has issued invitation letters to private doctors and arranged seminars for them to explain the details of the relevant programmes and the arrangements for vaccination, etc. For convenient access by doctors, relevant information, such as “Doctors’ Guide” and agreements have been uploaded to the “Healthcare Professional Corner” of the thematic website of the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. Also, private doctors can conveniently register to join the Vaccination Subsidy Scheme online.
To ensure the service quality of the healthcare service providers providing vaccination services, the DH requires that they must arrange eligible healthcare workers or staff who have received training to provide the vaccination service to the public. They must also arrange for vaccination in accordance with the relevant agreement and “Doctors’ Guide”. The DH will also stringently monitor the operations of the healthcare service providers under the various vaccination programmes, and will visit the various vaccination settings from time to time to remind the providers to continue to carefully abide by the guidelines for providing safe and effective vaccination services. Furthermore, the DH has put in place a notification system which requires the responsible doctor to report to the DH any clinical incidents related to vaccination. If there is any contravention of the relevant requirements, the DH will follow up according to the established mechanism.
As regards the protection of labour rights and interests, both service providers and partner healthcare organisations operating CTCs or CVCs have the responsibility to decide on an operation model which complies with the legislation and is suitable for the actual situation. The Government will ensure that the service providers and partner healthcare organisations comply with the relevant legislation in Hong Kong for ensuring that the legitimate rights and interests of the workers are safeguarded.
Note 1:
List of private clinics: www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/en/VSS
List of doctors providing COVID-19 vaccination at non-clinic setting: www.chp.gov.hk/files/pdf/list_vssdr_covid_non_clinic_eng.pdf
Note 2:
List of private healthcare institutions enrolled in the BioNTech Vaccination Pilot Scheme: www.chp.gov.hk/files/pdf/list_vssdr_covid_bnt_pilot_eng.pdf
Note 3:
Lists of visiting medical officers: www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/en/RV read more
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