The following is issued on behalf of the Legislative Council Secretariat: 
 
     The Legislative Council (LegCo) Subcommittee on Issues Relating to the Improvement of Environmental Hygiene and Cityscape conducted a visit to Yuen Long today (April 26) to better understand specific refuse collection and rodent surveillance facilities of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD).
 
     Accompanied by officials from the FEHD, including the Deputy Director (Environmental Hygiene) of the FEHD, Miss Diane Wong, Members first visited a back alley of Castle Peak Road – Yuen Long Section to observe the deployment of the thermal camera monitoring system for rodent surveillance. Members noted that the thermal camera monitoring system consists of thermal imaging cameras with artificial intelligence analytic function to record rodent activities and their extent, so as to assist the FEHD's deployment of rodent control work.
 
     Members then visited Nam Pin Wai in Yuen Long to observe the operation of the solar-powered aluminium refuse collection point and solar-powered mobile refuse compactor. Members learnt that each refuse compactor has a refuse handling capacity of four tonnes. The compactor's enclosed design can alleviate rodent infestation and pest problems. Members also took the opportunity to exchange views with officials from the FEHD on the prevention and control of rodent and pest infestation.
 
     Members who participated in the visit were the Chairman of the Subcommittee, Mr Chan Han-pan; Subcommittee members Mr Steven Ho and Ms Elizabeth Quat; as well as non-Subcommittee member Mr Leung Che-cheung.

      

     The Department of Health (DH) announced that as of 4pm today (April 26), one death case, reported as a suspected serious adverse event following a COVID-19 vaccination within 14 days, had been received from the Hospital Authority (HA) in the past 24 hours. The report did not provide clinical evidence to support that the event was caused by the vaccine.
      
     According to the information provided by the HA, the case involves a 63-year-old man with a history of hyperlipidaemia. He had a seizure at home early this morning and then a loss of consciousness. He was admitted to the Accident and Emergency Department (A&ED) of Kwong Wah Hospital. Resuscitation was performed but in vain, and he passed away the same morning. According to information, he received the second dose of CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccination at Kowloon Hospital 10 days (i.e. April 16) prior to his death, and there was no record that the man complained of feeling unwell during observation.
      
     The DH has contacted the HA immediately upon notification to obtain further information on the incident to facilitate a causality assessment. So far, there is no clinical evidence to indicate that his death was caused by the vaccine. The HA has referred the case to the Coroner. Also, the DH will pass the case, based on the established mechanism, to the Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following COVID-19 Immunisation (Expert Committee) for conducting a causality assessment.

     According to the World Health Organization, an Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI) is any medical occurrence that follows immunisation and that does not necessarily have a causal relationship with the usage of the vaccine.
      
     Up to and including April 18, 2021, there were about 1 091 100 doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered in Hong Kong. During the same period, the DH had received a total of 1 890 AEFI reports (0.17 per cent of all doses administered), including 11 reports of death with vaccination history within 14 days (0.001 per cent of all doses administered). Among these 11 cases, the Expert Committee has concluded no causal relationship with COVID-19 vaccination for three cases and preliminarily considered no association with vaccination for the remaining eight cases. According to the background information provided by the HA, there were about 500 deaths recorded at the HA's A&ED between March 22 and April 18, 2021 (on average about 18 deaths at A&ED per day). The state of death records at the A&ED is provided as a cross-reference to enhance fuller public understanding of cases of the kind recorded on vaccine recipients.

     The Government announced today (April 26) the re-appointment of Mr Tim Lui Tim-leung as the Chairman of the Education Commission (EC) for the period from May 1, 2021, to December 31, 2022.
      
     The Secretary for Education, Mr Kevin Yeung, said, "We are deeply grateful for Mr Lui's visionary leadership, strong commitment and invaluable contribution to the work of the EC.
      
     "Under Mr Lui's exemplary leadership, the EC has tendered insightful advice to the Government on significant education issues, in particular, the policy initiatives on the eight key education areas as put forth by the current-term Government, enhancing the quality of education in Hong Kong. Mr Lui's re-appointment as the EC Chairman will help ensure the continuity and effective implementation of the initiatives to provide quality education for our students."

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     As at 9am today (April 26), nine COVID-19 confirmed patients were discharged from hospital in the last 24 hours. So far, a total of 11 363 patients with confirmed or probable infection have been discharged.
 
     At present, there are 653 negative pressure rooms in public hospitals with 1 196 negative pressure beds activated. A total of 134 confirmed patients are currently hospitalised in 16 public hospitals and the North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre, among which three patients are in critical condition, two are in serious condition and the remaining 129 patients are in stable condition.
 
     The Hospital Authority will maintain close contact with the Centre for Health Protection to monitor the latest developments and to inform the public and healthcare workers on the latest information in a timely manner.
 
     Details of the above-mentioned patients are as follows:
 

     The Club-house Subsidy Scheme and the Mahjong/Tin Kau Licence Holder Subsidy Scheme under the Anti-epidemic Fund opened for application today (April 26).

     Under the directions issued by the Secretary for Food and Health pursuant to the Prevention and Control of Disease (Requirements and Directions)(Business and Premises) Regulation (Cap. 599F), certain premises have been ordered to close or put in place tightened specified pre-cautionary measures since November 26, 2020, due to changes in the epidemic situation, including the closure of all nightclubs and bars/pubs since that date; while karaoke establishments and mahjong/tin kau premises have also been ordered to close since December 2, 2020. The businesses of club-houses and mahjong/tin kau premises have thus been affected for a long period of time and the disbursement of a further subsidy is exceptionally arranged.

     The Club-house Subsidy Scheme provides a subsidy of $100,000 to eligible holders of a valid Certificate of Compliance (CoC) issued under the Clubs (Safety of Premises) Ordinance (Cap. 376), and an additional subsidy of $50,000 for CoC holders who also operate karaoke establishments, nightclubs or bars/pubs in their clubhouse premises.

     The Mahjong/Tin Kau Licence Holder Subsidy Scheme provides a one-off subsidy of $100,000 to each eligible holder of an mahjong/tin kau licence issued under the Gambling Ordinance (Cap. 148).

     The application forms and guides to apply for the two subsidy schemes can be downloaded from the website of the Office of the Licensing Authority (OLA) under the Home Affairs Department (www.hadla.gov.hk). The OLA will also send letters to CoC holders and mahjong/tin kau licence holders to advise them about the subsidy schemes. The application deadline is May 26, 2021. Upon receipt of completed application forms and the required supporting documents, the disbursement of subsidies could generally be made in around two weeks.