Judiciary backend support staff preliminarily tested positive for COVID-19

The following is issued on behalf of the Judiciary:

     The Judiciary today (December 12) said a staff member responsible for backend support duties was preliminarily tested positive for COVID-19 today.

     The relevant staff works in the High Court Building (HCB). The staff does not need to be in contact with court users. The staff felt unwell on Thursday (December 10) and was preliminarily tested positive for COVID-19 today.

     For the sake of prudence, the Judiciary had immediately arranged cleansing and disinfection of the court premises, including relevant courtroom, offices and public areas. The relevant cleansing work had been completed without affecting operation of the HCB. The HCB will open as usual on Monday (December 14).

     The Judiciary has so far not been notified by the Centre for Health Protection that any person or Judiciary staff is regarded as a close contact of the relevant staff.

     To provide further information to the public, details of confirmed or preliminary positive cases of COVID-19 involving staff working on Judiciary premises and court users who have stayed in the court areas for relatively long hours in the past 14 days have been uploaded to the Judiciary website (www.judiciary.hk) for reference.

     The Judiciary will continue to strictly enforce appropriate preventive and crowd management measures. These measures include enhanced cleansing and disinfection of public areas, requiring all people entering the Judiciary premises to undergo body temperature checks and wear surgical masks at all times unless otherwise directed by the judge, and putting in place other appropriate crowd management arrangements to regulate the people flow and avoid crowding.