False alarm of negative pressure system in North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The spokesperson for Kowloon West Cluster made the following announcement today (June 29) concerning a false alarm of the negative pressure system in the isolation ward of the North Lantau Hospital Hong Kong Infection Control Centre (HKICC):
 
     At 7.35am today, the alarm for the negative pressure system of an isolation ward on the ground floor of Block E of the HKICC was activated, indicating the malfunctioning of the negative pressure system in one of the cubicles. No staff member was working in that cubicle at the time. According to the prevailing guideline, all staff members in the ward put on N95 respirators immediately and transferred the patient residing in the affected cubicle to another cubicle. Thorough disinfection has been carried out in the affected cubicle. An inspection by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department staff later confirmed that it was a false alarm incident and the service contractor has been requested to follow up on the incident. The negative pressure system had been functioning normally all along. There was no risk of infection arising from this incident.
 
     The HKICC has reported the incident to the Hospital Authority Head Office via the Advance Incident Reporting System.