A man was fined $21,000 at West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts today (March 4) for contravening the Hotel and Guesthouse Accommodation Ordinance.
      
     The courts heard that in August last year, officers of the Office of the Licensing Authority (OLA), the Home Affairs Department, inspected a suspected unlicensed guesthouse on Chung On Street in Tsuen Wan. During the inspection, the OLA officers posed as lodgers and successfully rented a room in the guesthouse on a daily basis.
      
     According to the OLA's record, the guesthouse did not possess a licence under the Ordinance on the day of inspection. The man responsible for managing the premises was charged with contravening section 5(1) of the Ordinance.
      
     A department spokesman stressed that operating or managing an unlicensed guesthouse is a criminal offence and will lead to a criminal record. Upon conviction, the offender is liable to a maximum fine of $200,000 and two years' imprisonment.
           
     The spokesman appealed to anyone with information about suspected unlicensed guesthouses to report it to the OLA through the hotline (tel: 2881 7498), by email (hadlaenq@had.gov.hk), by fax (2504 5805) using the report form downloaded from the OLA website (www.hadla.gov.hk), or through the mobile application "Hong Kong Licensed Hotels and Guesthouses".

     The Food and Health Bureau (FHB) announced today (March 4) that the operation service contract for the Kwai Tsing District Health Centre (DHC) has been awarded through open tender to the Kwai Tsing Safe Community and Healthy City Association (the operator).
 
     Under the contract, the operator is required to commence three-year operation of a Core Centre no later than October 1 this year. It will also set up five satellite centres in different parts of Kwai Tsing within one year after commencement of the Core Centre. The total contract amount is $284.06 million.
 
     Located at Kowloon Commerce Centre in Kwai Chung with about 1 500 square metres of net operating floor area, the Core Centre will provide various healthcare services including health promotion and educational activities, health assessment and chronic disease management. It will open 10 hours a day and six days a week.
 
     "We will work closely with the operator to prepare for the commissioning of the Core Centre and the satellite centres. The operator is required to develop a network of medical and healthcare practitioners including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians and Chinese medicine practitioners, with a view to providing multiple access and service points for a good range of co-ordinated care and support services within the district, offering a convenient alternative to frequenting hospitals," a spokesman for the FHB said.
 
     "The Kwai Tsing DHC is a pilot scheme with a brand new operation mode and funding support from the Government. It aims to illustrate the effectiveness of public-private partnership and medical-social collaboration in providing primary healthcare services which cater for the needs and characteristics of the district, as well as to enhance public awareness of a healthy lifestyle, disease prevention and self-management of health."
 
     "Taking into account the experience of the pilot DHC in Kwai Tsing District, the Government will gradually set up DHCs in all 18 districts," the spokesman said.

     The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) announced today (March 4) that in view of an increasing number of pertussis cases locally in recent years, the Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases (SCVPD) under the CHP has recommended that pregnant women receive one dose of acellular pertussis-containing vaccine during each pregnancy as part of routine antenatal care regardless of previous vaccination and natural infection history against pertussis, as a measure to provide direct protection for infants against pertussis.
 
     The SCVPD recommends that the vaccination can be conducted at any time in the second or third trimester, preferably before 35 weeks of gestation, for transplacental transfer of maternal vaccine-induced antibodies to the baby. Diphtheria (reduced dose), tetanus and acellular pertussis (reduced dose) (dTap) vaccine is recommended to be used while diphtheria (reduced dose), tetanus, acellular pertussis (reduced dose) and inactivated poliovirus (dTap-IPV) vaccine can also be used if available.
 
     As for women who have not received any pertussis-containing vaccine during pregnancy, they would still benefit by receiving one dose of a dTap or dTap-IPV vaccine as early as possible after delivery, preferably before discharge from the hospital, for indirect protection to infants. Of note, it requires about two weeks for antibodies to develop after the vaccination and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that the vaccine be given preferably at least 15 days before the end of pregnancy.
 
     Moreover, pregnant women are recommended to receive the annual inactivated seasonal influenza vaccine available for the season, which can be administered with a pertussis-containing vaccine during the same visit.
 
     In a meeting held earlier, the SCVPD reviewed the local epidemiology of pertussis, recommendations of the WHO, overseas practices, and scientific evidence on the effectiveness and safety of maternal pertussis vaccination and thus made the above recommendations.
 
     The SCVPD noted that substantial evidence supporting the effectiveness and safety of dTap vaccination in pregnancy has been documented in countries where maternal pertussis vaccination was implemented. Furthermore, there has been an increasing amount of evidence on the safety of maternal pertussis immunisation from different countries in recent years, and available evidence so far has not suggested an increase in adverse events in both mothers and infants.
 
     Pertussis is an acute, highly contagious respiratory infection spread by droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes, or via direct contact with respiratory secretions of the infected. The disease affects people of all ages, and infants who are too young to be vaccinated are most vulnerable. Young children and particularly infants have a much higher risk of severe complications from the infection and the disease may be fatal.
 
     A pertussis-containing vaccine was first introduced in Hong Kong in 1957. Under the current Hong Kong Childhood Immunisation Programme, children receive a total of six doses of pertussis-containing vaccines, including three primary doses at 2, 4 and 6 months old and three booster doses at 18 months, Primary One and Primary Six. The immunisation coverage rate of pertussis has been maintained at a very high level of over 95 per cent for many years.
 
     In recent years, resurgence of pertussis has been observed in countries with high vaccination coverage, such as Australia, Japan, the United States and a number of European countries including Portugal and the United Kingdom. Regionally, there have also been significant increases in the number of reported pertussis cases in the Mainland including Guangdong Province.
　　
     Locally, there has been a surge in the notified pertussis cases since 2017 and the increasing trend continued through 2018. The number of pertussis cases recorded by the CHP has increased from 20 to 50 per year during 2011-16 to 69 cases in 2017, and further to 110 cases in 2018.
 
     Among the 179 cases recorded in 2017 and 2018, about 40 per cent (72 cases) affected infants aged below 6 months and all had not completed the primary series of pertussis vaccination. About 20 per cent (35 cases) were infants aged below 2 months who were not yet due for the first dose of pertussis-containing vaccine. Among the 93 adult cases recorded in the same period, about 83 per cent (77 cases) had no or unknown history of pertussis vaccination and about 48 per cent (45 cases) were not born in Hong Kong and might not have received a pertussis vaccine during their childhood.
 
     The CHP has issued a letter to doctors and hospitals to inform them of the recommendations. Meanwhile, the DH has been actively planning the implementation of the recommendations in collaboration with the Hospital Authority, details of which will be announced in due course. The Consensus Recommendation has been uploaded to the CHP website (www.chp.gov.hk/en/static/24008.html) for reference by healthcare professionals.

     The effective exchange rate index for the Hong Kong dollar on Monday, March 4, 2019 is 103.1 (down 0.2 against last Saturday's index).

     The effective exchange rate index for the Hong Kong dollar on Saturday, March 2, 2019 was 103.3 (up 0.1 against last Friday's index).

     Police are investigating a fatal traffic accident in Yau Ma Tei today (March 4) in which two men aged 54 and 59 died, while 11 women and five men were injured.

     At about 10.25am, a bus driven by the 59-year-old man was travelling along West Kowloon Highway towards Hong Kong. When approaching Yau Ma Tei Interchange, it reportedly collided with a light goods vehicle (LGV) that was stopped on the highway suspectedly due to breakdown.

     In the accident, the 59-year-old bus driver fell out from the bus and was certified dead at scene, while the 54-year-old LGV driver, who was located at the back of the LGV, was seriously injured and sent to Queen Elizabeth Hospital unconsciously where he was certified dead at 11.11am. A 39-year-old female LGV passenger, ten female bus passengers and five male bus passengers aged between 23 and 69 were injured and sent to Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Kwong Wah Hospital for medical treatment.

     Investigation by the Special Investigation Team of Traffic, Kowloon West is underway.

     Anyone who witnessed the accident or has any information to offer is urged to contact the investigating officers on 3661 9023 or 3661 9188.