A spokesman for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) said today (February 18) that in order to conduct thorough cleaning and disinfection work, slaughtering services at Sheung Shui Slaughterhouse (SSSH) have been suspended today. Tsuen Wan Slaughterhouse (TWSH) will step up slaughtering services to cater to the needs of the trade.
The FEHD currently arranges COVID-19 deep throat saliva tests every week for all practitioners (including slaughterhouse staff, buyers and staff of importers) of SSSH, and has been informed this morning that among the test results of the latest round of some 1 100 samples, 86 of them were positive. The FEHD has immediately notified the Centre for Health Protection and instructed SSSH to close for thorough cleaning and disinfection. No entry will be allowed for persons with positive test results and their close contacts.
The daily auction of live pigs at SSSH will be conducted through other means, while the trade has been notified that they may arrange to transship pigs to TWSH for slaughtering. For prudence's sake, cleaning and disinfection will also be conducted at TWSH later today. The FEHD will adopt special measures and arrange COVID-19 testing for persons entering TWSH as soon as possible.
The spokesman said the cleaning and disinfection work at SSSH is expected to be completed today and limited services, including auctions and the slaughtering sessions that follow, will be resumed at SSSH tomorrow (February 19). The Government has liaised with the relevant trades and suggested to them to increase the supply of chilled and frozen pork products.
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