Skip to main content

National Games office established

The Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau announced today the setting up of a co-ordination office to carry out planning and implementation work for the upcoming National Games, National Games for Persons with Disabilities and National Special Olympic Games.   The National Games Coordination Office, led by three senior directorate officers, will work closely with the governments of Guangdong and the Macao Special Administration Region to co-organise the 15th National Games.            The State Council announced in August 2021 that the 15th National Games are to be co-hosted in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau in 2025, the first time Hong Kong will have co-hosted the National Games.   The three locations will also co-host the 12th National Games for Persons with Disabilities and the 9th National Special Olympic Games after the 15th National Games are held.        The Hong Kong SAR Organising Committee of the 15th National Games was formed in May, with the Chief Executive a

Infection control at gyms tightened

The Government today announced that it will tighten infection control measures in fitness centres from March 12 for a period of six days till March 17.   People in the fitness centres will be required to wear a mask at all times, except when having a shower or consuming food or drink at a table in catering premises. Other requirements currently in place will remain unchanged.   The Food & Health Bureau explained that in view of the recent large-scale coronavirus outbreak in fitness centres, it had to tighten infection control measures with immediate effect to contain the COVID-19 epidemic, in particular reinstating the mask-on requirement.   In all circumstances, particularly in an indoor setting, not wearing a mask is a high-risk behaviour and is prone to virus infection or transmission.   The bureau also pointed out that the first case of the fitness centre cluster was detected through regular testing required under the Prevention & Control of Disease (Requirements & Directions) (Business & Premises) Regulation.   It stated that many of the confirmed cases in this cluster were in good health all along and did not show any symptoms when they were confirmed positive for COVID-19.   This demonstrated that high-risk groups such as staff of fitness centres and other scheduled premises who have frequent contact with others should undergo regular testing in order to break the transmission chain in the community successfully.   The Government announced earlier that all staff of scheduled premises, including those of fitness centres, were included as a vaccination priority group under the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme.   Relevant staff are urged to get vaccinated as soon as possible as a higher proportion of people receiving vaccination in the community will strengthen the control of the epidemic situation, thus creating the conditions for relaxing social distancing measures.   The bureau appealed to fitness centres to strictly comply with the requirements, including arranging for their staff to undergo testing once every 14 days. They can make an appointment for free testing at a community testing centre.   The Government emphasised that it will closely monitor the epidemic development and the compliance situation of infection control measures by fitness centres.   It added that if necessary, it would not exclude the possibility of adopting more stringent measures to contain the epidemic, including requiring fitness centre staff to undergo testing at more frequent intervals or the closure of all fitness centres.   Managers of fitness centres who contravene the statutory requirements under the regulation are subject to a maximum fine of $50,000 and six months’ imprisonment.
http://dlvr.it/RvTbKR

Popular posts from this blog

Legal officer changes proposed

The Government has proposed to amend the law to allow legal officers of the Department of Justice to be appointed as a senior counsel.   At a media session after attending a Legislative Council meeting today, Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng explained the rationale behind the Government's proposal.   She said: “Why is it that my colleagues in the Department of Justice - who by their qualifications are solicitors but are actually arguing very well and very efficiently with great eloquence and efficacy in the Court of Final Appeal - are not being recognised when they are actually even better than their counterparts? That has always been something that sometimes troubles me.   “And for that reason, I have always been thinking about how we are going to overcome that problem.   “Now, what really triggers my determination to take this further forward is when one of our Deputy Directors of Public Prosecutions, Vinci Lam, took silk on May 29.   “That really showed that the form
Read more

124 COVID-19 cases reported

The Centre for Health Protection today said it is investigating 124 additional COVID-19 cases. More cases were detected in Kwai Chung Estate. There are also more than 70 preliminary positive cases.   Among the newly reported cases, 33 are related to Kwai Chung Estate, bringing the total number of positive and preliminary positive cases in the estate to 276.   One more positive case was found after an earlier confirmed case occurred at Glory Court, Tsuen Wan Garden, both of them live in units 5 but on two different floors. The centre has co-ordinated with related government departments and conducted an inspection today.    It was preliminarily considered that vertical transmission of virus via pipes is involved.   The centre will issue quarantine orders to residents of unit 5 on all floors of the building who resided there during the incubation period of the relevant cases and transfer them to a quarantine facility.   As it is possible that virus might be ejected from the open
Read more

CE to meet Congo president

Chief Executive John Lee will meet Democratic Republic of Congo President Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo at Government House tomorrow, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government announced today.   The Congo president is in the People’s Republic of China for a state visit and will arrive in Hong Kong for a two-day trip. http://dlvr.it/Spnmcs
Read more