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
(To watch the full press conference with sign language interpretation, click here.)
Chief Executive Carrie Lam today said having considered the situation, it is not entirely realistic to have some civil servants work from home, adding that the Government has no plan to suspend face-to-face classes for the time being.
Mrs Lam told a press conference that civil servants have duties to perform in handling the COVID-19 epidemic, but she encouraged the private sector to adopt work from home arrangements wherever possible.
“I would encourage private companies to allow their employees, wherever possible, to work from home, because the ultimate objective is to reduce people flow, to reduce congestion on public transport and hence to reduce the chance of infection.
“But for civil servants to work from home, our experience is that we have a lot of civil servants who have duties to do. And in dealing with this epidemic, there are even more duties for the civil servants to do.
“If you go visit one of those (places to enforce) restriction-testing (declarations) in a district, in a small area or in buildings, we have to mobilise hundreds of civil servants and staff to operate.
“So it is not entirely realistic to carve out some of the civil servants who could work from home.”
The Civil Service Bureau will advise various departments to allow staff who are able to deliver the service without having to be in the office to work from home, she added.
As regards maintaining the current class arrangements, Mrs Lam said the decision was made for the benefit and interest of the students.
“Not to allow young students to come to school, not having this face-to-face learning, is significantly affecting their health - whether it is their mental health or their physical health.
“And schools have been highly co-operative in arranging the resumption of these classes for a very long time and so far, they have been working well.
“So for the time being, we feel that (our decision is) for the benefit and the interest of the children - and of course also their parents - because if the kids are not going to school and the parents could not look after them, there will be major problems as well. So for the time being, we are not suspending classes.”
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