​The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, today (April 2), accompanied by the Acting Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Jack Chan, took part in the territory-wide distribution of anti-epidemic service bags. She visited a "three-nil" private building in the Central and Western District to distribute anti-epidemic service bags door to door. She also took the opportunity to appeal to them to make good use of the rapid antigen test (RAT) kits in the bags by taking tests, together with all of their family members, from April 8 to April 10 consecutively so as to help identify infected cases and stabilise the epidemic situation early.
Mrs Lam was deeply encouraged that civil servants of various bureaux and departments had been working in concert, and different sectors of the community, including Members of the Legislative Council, the Hong Kong Community Anti-Coronavirus Link, the Anti-Coronavirus Link of 18 districts, local organisations and non-governmental organisations, clansman organisations, charity groups, volunteers, uniformed groups, youth organisations, religious groups and ethnic minorities service organisations, etc, had been actively responding to the Government's call, to participate in the packaging and distribution of anti-epidemic service bags. In the past three days, with the concerted efforts of over 17 000 volunteers and nearly 2 000 civil servants, a total of 3.5 million anti-epidemic service bags was smoothly packaged. Besides a handbook of anti-epidemic information and a message card prepared by the Government, each anti-epidemic service bag contains three kinds of medical supplies, namely 20 RAT kits, 20 KN95 masks and two boxes of proprietary Chinese medicine.
Mrs Lam said, "The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has all along been receiving staunch support from the Central Government in the procurement of medical supplies. Upon the receipt of sufficient supplies delivered to Hong Kong, we are able to smoothly take forward this large-scale territory-wide distribution of anti-epidemic service bags. The distribution work is expected to be finished within seven days. To make the best use of the supplies and enhance the atmosphere of fighting the virus together, I appealed to all members of the public at the press conference this morning to conduct RATs for three consecutive days from April 8 to April 10 and report their positive test results, if any, through the online system operated by the Department of Health as soon as possible. The participation of the public for a few minutes every day will assist the Government in gauging the situation of local infection and providing appropriate isolation arrangement or treatment for the infected people to reduce the spread of the virus in the community or household."
Starting from next week, the Government will strengthen its efforts to promote to the public, through publicity videos and various platforms including Tamar Talk, news.gov.hk and YouTube, the proper way to use an RAT kit and report positive test results through the "Declaration System for individuals tested positive for COVID-19 using Rapid Antigen Test" run by the Department of Health.
"Although the fifth wave of the epidemic, having lasted for three months, has shown a gradual downtrend after reaching the peak, the daily number of cases tested positive remains high. May I appeal to members of the public to uphold the spirit of unity in fighting the epidemic, and continue to comply with social distancing measures, minimise group gatherings, and conduct RATs from April 8 to 10, in order to create favourable conditions for the relaxation of various social distancing measures in three phases over a period of three months starting from April 21 onwards for Hong Kong to gradually return to normality early," added Mrs Lam.
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