â€‹Hong Kong Customs yesterday (May 31) mounted an anti-smuggling operation in the southeast waters of Hong Kong and detected a suspected smuggling case involving a barge. About 40 tonnes of suspected smuggled frozen meat with an estimated market value of about $4 million were seized.

     Customs conducted an anti-smuggling operation and spotted a suspicious barge in the waters off Waglan Island that night. Several men on the barge, suspected of participating in smuggling activities, were unloading a batch of goods onto a fishing vessel. Customs officers immediately took action and intercepted the fishing vessel, the barge and a tugboat. The batch of suspected smuggled frozen meat was seized on board the fishing vessel and the barge.

     During the operation, nine men, aged between 29 and 54, suspected to be connected with the case were arrested.

     An investigation is ongoing.

     Customs is the primary agency responsible for the suppression of smuggling activities and has all along been combating various smuggling activities proactively at the forefront. Customs will keep up its enforcement action and continue to fiercely combat sea smuggling activities through proactive risk management and intelligence-based enforcement strategies, along with mounting targeted anti-smuggling operations at suitable times to land a solid blow against relevant activities.

     Smuggling is a serious offence. Under the Import and Export Ordinance, any person found guilty of importing or exporting unmanifested cargo is liable to a maximum fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years.

     Members of the public may report any suspected smuggling activities to Customs' 24-hour hotline 2545 6182 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk).

  

     A man who went missing in Tin Shui Wai has been located.

     Liu Shen, aged 50, went missing after he left his residence on Tin Yan Road on May 28 afternoon. His family made a report to Police on the same day.

     The man returned to his residence this morning (June 1). He sustained no injuries and no suspicious circumstances were detected.

     The Department of Health (DH) today (June 1) announced that a total of three persons were sentenced by the Magistrates' Courts in the past week (May 25 to 31) for violating the Prevention and Control of Disease Regulation (Cap. 599A).

     The three cases involved two men and a woman aged between 20 and 26. They were fined from $5,000 to $8,000 by the Magistrates' Courts.

     â€‹The DH will continue its actions against those who have breached the relevant regulations earlier.

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, at a media session on civil service recruitment at the Central Government Offices this morning (June 1):
 
Reporter: Secretary, two questions. So you mentioned apart from meeting all the conditions, such as obtaining the degree within a certain period of time, students with advanced conditional offers can then join the Government immediately upon graduation. Can you explain further on what other conditions or qualifications the candidates need to obtain and need to be fulfilled? The second question is how likely do you think the new scheme can entice candidates from the private market given that the recruitment process is similar to the existing one?
 
Secretary for the Civil Service: For the conditions to be imposed on our conditional offer, it really differs from job to job. Different jobs have different requirements. So I can't really give you an exhaustive list here. But for example, this is just an example, for some disciplined service jobs, they would have a fitness requirement. Of course, in the recruitment process, the candidates would have to satisfy the physical fitness requirement, but since there is a considerable period of time between the recruitment and the actual reporting for duty, the disciplined services may require the candidate to be able to satisfy the physical fitness requirement again when they are ready for duty, so this may be one of the conditions. And also for all civil service jobs, we require civil servants to have a high degree of integrity and to have good conduct. So students who have been given a conditional offer have to satisfy the condition that their integrity and conduct remain good for the time between their acceptance of offer and the actual reporting of duty. And of course, as a civil servant, when they have become a civil servant, they have to maintain a high standard of integrity as well.
 
     For your second question, this initiative is not really to snatch people from the private sector, but to give greater certainty to those university undergraduates who before their final year have already made up their minds that they want a career in the civil service. It's to give greater certainty for them. It's to enable them to prepare themselves better for civil service jobs. And this is also a measure that has been in practice in the private sector for long. So we are simply catching up. We are simply doing what the private sector is doing as well. It's not really to target a particular source, but we are trying to give more certainty to young people who want to join the civil service.
 
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

      

     The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) is today (June 1) investigating an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) at a residential child care centre in Mong Kok, and hence reminded the public and management of institutions to maintain personal and environmental hygiene against AGE.

     The outbreak involves 23 children, comprising 12 boys and 11 girls between 4 months and 2 years old. They developed diarrhoea since May 24. All patients are in stable condition.

     According to the CHP's epidemiological investigation, the outbreak has a higher chance of person-to-person transmission or environmental contamination, while the chance of involving food poisoning is relatively low.

     Officers of the CHP have conducted a site visit and provided health advice to the staff of the residential child care centre concerning proper and thorough disinfection, proper disposal of vomitus, and personal and environmental hygiene. The residential child care centre has been put under medical surveillance.

     Investigations are ongoing.

     A spokesman for the CHP reminded that alcohol-based handrub should not substitute hand hygiene with liquid soap and water, as alcohol does not effectively kill some viruses frequently causing AGE, e.g. norovirus. Members of the public are advised to take heed of the following preventive measures against gastroenteritis:
 

• Ensure proper personal hygiene;
• Wash hands thoroughly before handling food and eating, after using the toilet or after changing diapers;
• Wear gloves when disposing of vomitus or faecal matter, and wash hands afterwards;
• Clean and disinfect contaminated areas or items promptly and thoroughly with diluted household bleach (by adding one part of bleach containing 5.25 per cent sodium hypochlorite to 49 parts of water). Wash hands thoroughly afterwards;
• Maintain good indoor ventilation;
• Pay attention to food hygiene;
• Use separate utensils to handle raw and cooked food;
• Avoid food that is not thoroughly cooked;
• Drink boiled water; and
• Do not patronise unlicensed food premises or food stalls.

     â€‹The public may visit the CHP's website (www.chp.gov.hk) or call the DH's Health Education Infoline (2833 0111) for more information.