Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan, at a media session after attending a symposium today (October 3):
Reporter: Do you agree that the Government's index does not reflect the reality? Would there be any new measures against rat infestation?
Secretary for Food and Health: As far as the work of rodent control is concerned, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department is actually having a number of measures. First of all, in terms of surveillance, they are putting a lot of different measures in the districts in order to check the indexes of rodent (Rodent Infestation Rates). As I have just emphasised, this type of surveillance is only one of the measures in providing information. People in the districts, including our staff of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, District Council members and also residents, know very well where the black spots are and places where there are lots of rats. This information will be provided to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department. Other than the overall work of rodent control, they are also doing focused work. That means they target a number of streets where there are black spots, and they would put more efforts in those streets, including education, cleaning and enforcement. I think these are some of the focused measures. As far as new technology is concerned, we have already asked the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to explore further new methods in terms of surveillance and killing rats in the community. Once they come up with some new measures and new technologies that should be evidence-based and fit in the context of the community, I will be most happy to provide more resources for them to go forward with the work of strengthening rodent control.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
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