Attention duty announcers, radio and TV stations: Please broadcast the following as soon as possible and repeat it at suitable intervals: Members of the public are advised to report any street flooding that comes to … read more
Following is the speech by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, at the 20th Anniversary Gala Dinner of Make-A-Wish Hong Kong today (August 19):
Kevin (Chairperson of Make-A-Wish Hong Kong, Dr Kevin Lau), Colleen (Chairperson of Gala Dinner Committee, Make-A-Wish Hong Kong, Ms Colleen Yu), Ms Song (Deputy Director-General Coordination Department of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Ms Song Wei), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good evening. I am delighted to join you all at this gala dinner to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Make-A-Wish Hong Kong.
First and foremost, I would like to extend my warmest gratitude to Make-A-Wish Hong Kong for their generous and kind-hearted support for children in need over the past 20 years.
Indeed, since its establishment in 1998, Make-A-Wish Hong Kong has helped fulfil the wishes of nearly 2 000 children with critical illness aged between 3 and 17 in Hong Kong and Macao. This meaningful wish-granting campaign aims to bring hope, strength and joy to these children and their families during their most difficult time by making their wish come true. We should all lend our full support to this loving and charitable cause.
Building a caring and compassionate society in Hong Kong is one of the key policy objectives of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. To this end, we are committed to providing sufficient resources to improve people’s livelihood. In 2018-19, the Government’s recurrent expenditure in social welfare, education and healthcare amounts to over $230 billion, representing about 60 per cent of total public expenditure.
Nonetheless, Government’s efforts alone are not enough. We need to work with civic-spirited and kind-hearted NGO partners like Make-A-Wish Hong Kong. We are vigorously promoting community-business-government tripartite collaboration to leverage Hong Kong’s abundant social capital by pooling ideas and efforts from all quarters of the community.
In promoting this tripartite collaboration, the Government is determined to be a “facilitator” by introducing various programmes to join hands with different sectors to help disadvantaged groups fulfil their “wishes” through various means. We have set up the Partnership Fund for the Disadvantaged to provide matching grants for donation from businesses to support a wide range of social service projects. So far, more than a million people in need have benefitted from this Fund. With a further injection of $400 million from the Government this year, the fund will attract more enterprises and welfare organisations to join our league and benefit more people in need.
Such tripartite collaboration also enhances co-operation across generations, societal strata and sectors. A case in point is the Community Investment and Inclusion Fund. Among the projects funded, over 130 target at strengthening children’s bonds with the community. For example, a project in Tin Shui Wai has introduced a community-family-school collaboration project to open up school premises to provide after-school child care services by recruiting and training voluntary workers from different sectors including parents to become tutors for children living in the district.
In addition, we have set up the Child Development Fund to promote tripartite, cross-sector collaboration among the Government, the community, families and the business sector. It aims to support longer-term development of children from a disadvantaged background with a view to alleviating inter-generational poverty. The Fund supports projects that seek to encourage children to plan for their future, develop a savings habit, and build up intangible assets such as positive attitudes, personal resilience and social networks which are all useful attributes for their future development.
This year, the Government has made an additional injection of $300 million into the Fund to sustain its operation in the long term. However, the key to the continuous success of this programme lies with the pool of mentors who are willing to spend time to guide our young participants. Being a Life Guide, a mentor is expected to widen the participant’s horizons, offer career inspirations, assist in building up self-esteem and resilience, as well as providing guidance and companionship as part of the personal development experience. Please allow me to make an appeal to you all and sign up to be a mentor of this meaningful programme and help guide our children to a brighter and promising future.
On this note, I wish the Make-A-Wish Hong Kong continuous success and every one of you an enjoyable and memorable evening. Thank you. read more
The Secretary for Home Affairs, Mr Lau Kong-wah, today (August 19) extended his congratulations to Stephanie Au, Camille Lily Mei Cheng, Sze Hang-yu and Tam Hoi-lam on winning a bronze medal in the Women’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay of the Asian Games, being held in Jakarta and Palembang in Indonesia. This is the first medal the Hong Kong delegation has won in this Asian Games.
Mr Lau, who is visiting Jakarta, said, “The four Hong Kong swimmming athletes excelled in the competition and brought out their best in technique. Their great achievement at the beginning of the Asian Games has boosted the morale of the Hong Kong delegation. It was my honour to witness the moment and see the importance of our cheering for athletes. Our outstanding athletes deserve the support of all Hong Kong people.”
Mr Lau today watched fencing, softball, badminton, basketball and swimming competitions in which Hong Kong athletes participated. At around noon, Mr Lau met and had lunch with Hong Kong youths who have joined internship programmes in Jakarta to learn about their experience.
Mr Lau will watch other competitions with Hong Kong athletes participating tomorrow (August 20).
The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health is investigating today (August 19) one additional local case of dengue fever (DF). The CHP again urged the public to maintain strict environmental hygiene, mosquito control and personal protective measures both locally and during travel.
The case involves a 52-year-old male patient with underlying illness, who developed fever, headache, retro-orbital pain, myalgia and skin rash since August 15. He sought medical attention at the Accident and Emergency Department of St John Hospital on August 18 and was subsequently admitted to Queen Mary Hospital on the same day. He is currently in a stable condition and his blood sample tested positive for dengue virus serotype 3 upon laboratory testing.
Initial enquiries revealed that the patient lives in Tsan Tuen Road in Cheung Chau and recalled history of mosquito bite in Fa Peng Road in Cheung Chau. During the incubation period, the patient had travelled to Dongguan in Guangdong for a day trip.
The home contacts of the patient have remained asymptomatic and have been put under medical surveillance.
“We are working closely with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) to assess and prevent possible spread of infection. The FEHD’s vector investigations, surveillance and control are ongoing. Epidemiological investigations are ongoing,” a spokesman for the CHP said.
“The CHP, together with the FEHD, will arrange a health talk in Cheung Chau. In addition, two health talks will be held at Kai Tak Community Hall (3pm) and Henry G. Leong Yaumatei Community Centre (noon) tomorrow (August 20) to deliver health advice. The CHP has also provided information and details of geographical distribution on the local DF cases on the CHP’s designated webpage for DF to facilitate handy access of information for the public,” the spokesman said.
“The CHP appeals to members of the public not to visit Lion Rock Park during the closure period in order to prevent contracting DF. People who had visited Lion Rock Park are advised to apply insect repellent for 14 days upon their last visit, and those with DF symptoms should seek medical advice as early as possible,” the spokesman said.
Persons who have been to the vicinity of Wong Tai Sin (particularly Lion Rock Park), Kwai Shing West Estate, Clear Water Bay Second Beach, Cheung Chau (Hillside Road, Tsan Tuen Road and Fa Peng Road), Highland Park, Sai Tso Wan Recreation Ground, Wing Yiu Street, Tak Long Estate, Portland Street, Shanghai Street and Greenfield Garden with DF symptoms should call the CHP’s hotline (2125 1122) for laboratory investigation or referral as appropriate. The hotline operates from 9am to 5.45pm daily. Since August 14 to 5pm today, 91 enquiries had been received.
“We have informed the Guangdong and Macao health authorities to alert them to the latest situation,” the spokesman added.
This is the 16th local case recorded this year. Excluding the local cases, as of August 17, 57 imported cases had been recorded in 2018. The cases were mainly imported from Thailand (25), the Philippines (10) and Cambodia (seven).
In the rainy season, the public should take heed of the following advice on mosquito control:
Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Acting Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Chui Tak-yi, at a media session after attending a public event today (August 19):
Reporter: Will the Government consider stepping up mosquito eradication in other aspects or in other districts, not just closing down the Lion Rock Park?
Acting Secretary for Food and Health: For the measures to damp down the spread of dengue fever, of course for the affected areas where the individuals have either lived or travelled, we have a special protocol in place to intensify the mosquito eradication action. On the other hand, we have also implemented the all-out intensive anti-mosquito programme for all districts so that for areas where there is a high chance of mosquito gathering, we will have a weekly fogging exercise to eradicate adult mosquito because we know adult mosquito is a known vehicle to spread dengue fever.
Reporter: …also suggests that, maybe, the Government should release real-time information about what districts are facing higher risks of having mosquitoes. So, will the Government consider doing that?
Acting Secretary for Food and Health: In the current system, in fact, when we collect all the ovitraps back into the laboratory, and when we find any ovitrap showing either eggs or larvae of the relevant mosquito, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will go to the area where the ovitrap showing positive result and start the eradication treatment immediately. We don’t wait for the publication of the data. On one hand, we have immediate measure to implement the eradication measures. On the other hand, we won’t wait for the results. Of course, if there is any need to speed up the publication of results, we will consider.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.) read more