The Environmental Protection Department said it does not tolerate concrete batching plants operating without a licence and will make every effort to stop any illegal operations. The department made the statement in response to media reports yesterday of a concrete batching plant at 20 Tung Yuen Street in Yau Tong continuing to operate without holding a valid Specified Process Licence (SPL). The department has been closely monitoring the operation of two plants, both owned by China Concrete. The other plant is at 22 Tung Yuen Street in Yau Tong. Regarding the plant at 20 Tung Yuen Street, the Air Pollution Control Appeal Board dismissed an appeal lodged by China Concrete against the department’s refusal of its application for renewal of an SPL for the plant on November 22. Under the Air Pollution Control (Specified Processes) Regulations, the plant’s SPL ceased to be valid with immediate effect and the department issued a letter requesting that all works be halte
(To watch the full media session with sign language interpretation, click here.)
Secretary for Food & Health Prof Sophia Chan today said the experts still believe that the benefits of receiving COVID-19 vaccines outweigh the risks and the vaccination programme should continue.
While meeting with reporters today, Prof Chan noted that the Government is concerned about the two suspected serious adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination and explained that experts are carefully examining the situation step by step.
“We reviewed some of the data from the rest of the countries which have vaccinated people using the Sinovac or BioNTech vaccines in terms of understanding more about the adverse events reported. However, reporting the adverse events is only the first step.
“The most important step is for our Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following COVID-19 Immunisation to review and also assess and analyse the causality, that is whether the adverse events are directly related to vaccination.
“So until and unless we have established this relationship, the current rate of adverse events is probably not comparable with those in other countries at this stage.
“But of course, we will continue to review the situation and also review not only the vaccination data, but also the data, for example, the data of having these adverse events which happen every day in the Hospital Authority’s accident and emergency departments.
“We will also review all these different rates. The Department of Health and the Hospital Authority are looking at these statistics and once they have more information they will report their findings.”
http://dlvr.it/RvC7BK
http://dlvr.it/RvC7BK