kakase/hk_gov_press_release huggingface dataset:
HAD holds series of vaccination activities to facilitate COVID-19 vaccination of elderly and children
29.8.2022

âChildren aged from 6 months to 3 years may receive the Sinovac vaccine starting from August 4. To encourage the early vaccination of the young and old, the 18 District Offices have stepped up COVID-19 vaccination activities in various districts since August so as to enable citizens of all ages, especially children and the elderly who are more vulnerable to serious infection, to be vaccinated as early as possible to obtain the much needed proper protection for themselves and others under the severe epidemic situation. Since August, the 18 District Offices, together with various units such as school liaison committees, school development sections, primary school heads associations, kindergarten heads associations in various districts, district health centres, rural committees, the Kowloon Women's Organisations Federation and Hong Kong Community Anti-Coronavirus Link have jointly held over 25 vaccination activities at community halls or other locations in the districts to provide citizens with one more convenient and quick way for receiving vaccination. As at August 28, around 3 900 citizens including about 130 young children aged from 6 months to 3 years and about 750 elderly persons aged 70 or above were vaccinated in these activities. In support of the vaccination activities in districts, the Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs, Miss Alice Mak; the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung; the Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin; the Chairperson of the Women's Commission, Ms Chan Yuen-han; the Chairperson of the Kowloon Women's Organisations Federation, Ms So Lai-chun; and Legislative Council Members attended different vaccination activities in various districts earlier to appeal to members of the public to make reservations for COVID-19 vaccination for the elderly and children in their families, and learn more about the vaccination situation of the public. Increasing the vaccination rate plays an important part in anti-epidemic work. The Home Affairs Department thanked all sectors of the community for fighting against the epidemic in solidarity and providing support to vaccination activities organised by various District Offices, such that citizens can be vaccinated as early as possible and high-risk groups can obtain effective protection. The 18 District Offices will continue to hold vaccination activities at various districts to enable citizens to receive vaccination.
Civil Service College holds eighth talk of series on country's foreign affairs (with photos)
29.8.2022

The Civil Service College held today (August 29) the eighth talk of the series on the country's foreign affairs jointly with the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). The talk, on the topic of "Promoting Multilateral Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics, Steering the Reform of the Global Governance System", was delivered via video-conferencing by Deputy Director-General of the Department of International Organizations and Conferences of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr Zhao Xing. Addressing the talk, the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, mentioned that the important speech delivered by President Xi Jinping at the meeting celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland had acknowledged the distinctive advantages of Hong Kong's close connection with the rest of the world under "one country, two systems". Therefore, civil servants of the HKSAR should obtain a deeper understanding of the country's foreign policy to widen their international perspectives and leverage Hong Kong's status as a world financial, trade and shipping centre. Over 200 civil servants in the directorate and senior ranks took part in today's talk through online access.
Government joins forces with local communities to boost COVID-19 vaccination (with photos)
25.8.2022

The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, said today (August 25) that it is important to have members and organisations of local communities to promote COVID-19 vaccination actively. In addition to organising outreach vaccination services in their communities, they can also disseminate the latest information about vaccination to members of their communities. After the lowering of the No. 8 Storm Signal, nearly 300 people participated in a COVID-19 vaccination event in Kwun Tong District which was organised by the Kowloon Federation of Associations and co-organised by the Kwun Tong District Office at Sau Mau Ping Community Hall. About half of those vaccinated today were children and young persons aged below 18. Getting vaccinated before commencement of the new school term can provide students with better safeguard during interaction with schoolmates at schools. The number of local cases among the confirmed cases today reached 8 200. Mrs Yeung pointed out that elderly persons and children need to receive COVID-19 vaccination to reduce the risks of death and falling seriously ill should they get infected. She hoped to unite the community forces to disseminate the message of receiving suitable number of COVID-19 vaccine doses on time among members of their communities so as to enable those who are not vaccinated to recognise the risks, particularly for elderly persons and children, as getting vaccinated is a matter of time and urgency. They should not try their luck and must not underestimate the impacts that could be caused by the coronavirus to their health. The minimum age for receiving the Sinovac vaccine has been lowered to 6 months old, and the minimum age for receiving the BioNTech vaccine is 5 years old. The designated website for the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme ( www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/en/programme ) provides the latest information including details on vaccination venues, reservation and enquiry hotlines.
Transcript of remarks by SCS at media session
25.8.2022

âFollowing is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, at a media session after attending a COVID-19 vaccination event in Kwun Tong this afternoon (August 25): Reporter: The COVID cases may surpass 10 000 very soon. Any plans to let civil servants work from home to prevent further outbreak? And can you comment on the current vaccination rate in Hong Kong, especially among young children? Secretary for the Civil Service: The vaccination rate among civil servants is very high. Apart from those who are medically unfit to get vaccinated, all civil servants have been vaccinated according to the number of doses that they should take. So the possibility of having special working arrangements for civil servants is not high. I don't think in the near future we will need to implement such arrangements. As for young children, we have lowered the minimum age for receiving vaccination to 6 months old for about three weeks. And now around 9 000 children aged 6 months to 3 years old have got vaccinated. We are promoting this. I was at a maternal and child health centre two days ago, and we will have further promotion efforts to call upon parents of the children to get their children vaccinated and protected. And we have been seeing higher numbers of vaccination in the recent days, and we hope this trend will continue. (Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
SCS views COVID-19 vaccination arrangements at maternal and child health centre (with photos/video)
23.8.2022

The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, today (August 23) visited West Kowloon Maternal and Child Health Centre (MCHC) to learn about the arrangements for providing a COVID-19 vaccination service for children there. She also spoke with parents to learn about their views. Mrs Yeung was briefed by the Director of Health, Dr Ronald Lam, on the vaccination services for children at maternal and child health centres. Starting from last Monday (August 15), parents can have their young children receive the Sinovac vaccine at 28 MCHCs of the Department of Health (DH) when they receive services there. "Under the epidemic, we note that parents might not go out often with their young children, but most of the parents would take them to MCHCs to receive examinations, assessments and various vaccines. So, MCHCs play an essential role in boosting COVID-19 vaccination of young children," Mrs Yeung said. "There have not been many young children receiving COVID-19 vaccination at MCHCs in the past week, possibly because the vaccination programme for them has just started. I hope that more parents will take advantage of this convenient channel to arrange vaccination of their children. I also hope medical professionals will step up their efforts of explaining to parents to ease their concern and to enable more parents to understand the importance and urgency of COVID-19 vaccination." In order to further enable parents to arrange for the COVID-19 vaccination for their young children, all children aged 6 months to 3 years old can receive the Sinovac vaccination at five designated MCHCs, namely Sai Wan Ho MCHC, Tang Chi Ngong MCHC, Lam Tin MCHC, Ma On Shan MCHC and Yan Oi MCHC starting from next Monday (August 29). Parents can make the appointment through the online booking system ( booking.covidvaccine.gov.hk ) for their children starting from 9am this Friday (August 26). "To protect their children, parents should arrange for their children to receive COVID-19 vaccines. Children who have reached the age of 6 months can now receive the Sinovac vaccine. Parents should act as soon as possible so as to reduce the risks of death, falling seriously ill or severe after-effects for their children in the unfortunate event of infection," Mrs Yeung said. The designated website for the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme ( www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/en/programme ) provides the latest information including details on vaccination venues, reservation and enquiry hotlines. Parents or guardians may make an appointment for Sinovac vaccination at Community Vaccination Centres or designated general outpatient clinics of the Hospital Authority for their children through the booking system of the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. Parents may also choose to make an appointment to have their children receive the Sinovac vaccine for free from more than 1 000 private doctors and clinics participating in the vaccination programme.
SCS leads outreach team to Mui Wo to encourage COVID-19 vaccination of young and old (with photos)
20.8.2022

The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, today (August 20) led an outreach COVID-19 vaccination team to Mui Wo to provide the Sinovac vaccination service to more than 190 residents of Mui Wo and southern Lantau Island. The residents who received the vaccine today are as young as below 3 years and as old as in their 90s. They mainly received their third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. There were also some young children receiving their first vaccine dose after the lowering of the minimum age for receiving the vaccine to 6 months old. "Whether for elderly persons or young children, the coronavirus can cause serious effects on their health. In addition to the risks of death and falling seriously ill, severe after-effects are also worthy of concern. We must get vaccinated and, in particular, receive the second and third vaccine doses on time for the most effective self-protection," Mrs Yeung said. "This is the third time for our outreach service team to reach out to Mui Wo. The service enables elderly persons to receive vaccination without having to travel to urban areas. I would like to express my gratitude to the Mui Wo Rural Committee and the South Lantao Rural Committee for their assistance in enabling more residents to receive the protection conferred by the vaccine. In addition to the Community Vaccination Centres and other vaccination venues, currently there are many doctors providing outreach service in a non-clinic setting. Taking into account only the outreach service organised by the Government, today marks the 164th operation conducted by our outreach team and a total of 37 000 people have received COVID-19 vaccination in previous services." The minimum age for receiving the Sinovac vaccine has been lowered to 6 months old, and the minimum age for receiving the BioNTech vaccine is 5 years old. The designated website for the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme ( www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/en/programme ) provides the latest information including details on vaccination venues, reservation and enquiry hotlines.
Transcript of remarks by SCS at media session at HK Children's Hospital (with photos/video)
15.8.2022

Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, at a media session after inspecting the first-day operation of the Children Community Vaccination Centre at Hong Kong Children's Hospital concurrently providing vaccination service for children with the Sinovac and BioNTech vaccines this morning (August 15): Reporter: Secretary, how's the pace of young kids getting vaccinated? Because an expert said when the vaccination rate reach 20 per cent, it will go up quickly. So is the pace now quick enough? And also do you know about the procurement of BioNTech vaccines for young children? Is there a date for it? Secretary for the Civil Service: I hope the pace will be quicker but I note that we have only begun the vaccination for infants aged 6 months to 3 years old for less than two weeks. Right now we have more than 3 000 infants between this age bracket who have got vaccinated. I hope the pace will quicken. But I am confident that as school opens, as many more schools organise outreach services for their students, and as parents become more aware of the benefit of having the vaccination, the percentage will go up. We are still discussing with the pharmaceutical company that produces BioNTech vaccine for the infant formula of the BioNTech vaccine, procurement of this vaccine for use. When we have further news, we will let everybody know. Reporter: Would it be illegal to create a private social group like the "Civil Service Secrets" to express their dissatisfaction about the Government, and what is the criteria to&hellip;would it be illegal for that discussion? Secretary for the Civil Service: The Secretary for Security has clearly explained yesterday that simple criticism of the Government would not be illegal. For the civil service, we have plenty of established channels for colleagues to reflect their views to the management. We are very open to colleagues' views. In fact, I do have regular meetings with staff unions from time to time and I received a lot of criticisms about government policies, human resources management policies, etc. Government departments and bureaux also have their own departmental liaison channels with civil servants. So I don't think there is no channel for civil servants to express their views except on private social media platforms. And even on private social media platform as long as the information is not confidential and as long as it is a normal sort of criticism of government policies, it is no problem for civil servants to express them. Thank you. (Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
SCS appeals to parents for early COVID-19 vaccination arrangements for their children (with photos/video)
15.8.2022

The Children Community Vaccination Centre (CCVC) at Hong Kong Children's Hospital, the Community Vaccination Centre (CVC) at MTR Tsing Yi Station and the Maternal and Child Health Centres under the Department of Health will provide the Sinovac vaccination service starting from today (August 15). The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, visited Hong Kong Children's Hospital and MTR Tsing Yi Station today to inspect the first-day operation of the two vaccination centres concurrently providing vaccination services with the Sinovac and BioNTech vaccines. She also urged parents to bring their children to get vaccinated. Mrs Yeung said, "Parents must not overlook the serious symptoms that coronavirus can cause on their children, including encephalitis. Only by receiving vaccination can help people minimise their risks of falling seriously ill, death or severe after-effects should they get infected. Parents of children aged 6 months to 3 years should arrange their children to receive the Sinovac vaccine now so that they can have the protection conferred by the vaccine early." She added that parents could also let their young children receive the Sinovac vaccine at maternal and child health centres when they receive services there. Partitions and signage have been placed at the CCVC at Hong Kong Children's Hospital and the CVC at MTR Tsing Yi Station as appropriate for identification of the vaccination zones for the two types of vaccine. Hong Kong Children's Hospital administers the Sinovac vaccine for children aged 6 months to 17 years, while children aged 5 to 11 can continue to receive the BioNTech vaccine there. The CVC at MTR Tsing Yi Station administers the Sinovac vaccine to persons aged 6 months or above, and provides the BioNTech vaccine to persons aged 12 or above. Parents or guardians may make an appointment for Sinovac vaccination at CVCs or designated general outpatient clinics of the Hospital Authority for their children through the booking system of the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme ( booking.covidvaccine.gov.hk ). Parents may also choose to make an appointment to let their children receive the Sinovac vaccine for free from more than 1 000 private doctors and clinics participating in the vaccination programme.
SCS expresses sorrow over passing of Mr Ambrose S K Lee
14.8.2022

The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, today (August 14) expressed deep sorrow over the passing of Mr Ambrose S K Lee. Mrs Yeung said, "Mr Lee served Hong Kong for an extended period of time. He was an outstanding civil servant before he took up the posts of the Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Secretary for Security. Mr Lee joined the Immigration Officer grade of the Government in 1974 and assumed the post of Director of Immigration in 1998. He made significant contributions during his leadership of Hong Kong's immigration service in the years following the return to the Motherland. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Mr Lee for his contributions to the civil service and, on behalf of the Civil Service Bureau, express our deepest condolences to his family."
SCS encourages young interns of Administrative Service (with photos)
12.8.2022

As the 2022 Administrative Service Summer Internship Programme is drawing to a close, the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, today (August 12) met with participating university students, encouraging them to apply for civil service posts such as the Administrative Officer (AO) post upon graduation to serve society and contribute to the country. The Civil Service Bureau (CSB) received around 230 applications for the programme this year, and among them selected 59 students studying in local, Mainland and overseas tertiary institutions as interns. They were assigned to 24 bureaux and departments to handle duties comparable to those of an AO. During the gathering, Mrs Yeung listened to interns talk about their experiences in the internship, and encouraged them to strive to equip themselves and better plan for the future, making reference to her experience serving in different positions. Mrs Yeung said, "Young people are the future and pillars of Hong Kong. This internship programme, as part of the CSB's training opportunities for young people, allows participants to gain first-hand understanding of the Government's operation and the work of an AO. Through working with serving AOs, interns are able to learn more about the roles and missions of AOs and obtain real work experience. "The Government will continue to select and draw widely into government service, on the basis of both integrity and competence, outstanding individuals who are firm in their love for both the country and Hong Kong, have a broad perspective and are eager to serve the public. I very much welcome all students who are dedicated to serving society and earnestly addressing people's concerns and difficulties in daily life to join the Administrative Service upon graduation so as to join efforts in faithfully implementing 'one country, two systems' and building a better Hong Kong." AOs are professional public administrators who play a pivotal role in the civil service system. They are responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies and resource allocation, as well as duties such as the promotion of Hong Kong's interests in the Mainland and overseas. They are posted to different bureaux and departments at regular intervals with the opportunities to undertake different areas of public policy work, accumulate experience and broaden horizons. The Government will launch a new round of the AO Recruitment Exercise in September 2022 and the details will be separately announced in September.
Enhancing efficiency of Home Vaccination Service for COVID-19 vaccination of elderly
12.8.2022

To further enhance service efficiency for achieving the objective of administering the appropriate number of COVID-19 vaccine doses for elderly persons, the Government will commission 13 medical organisations to continue to provide a door-to-door vaccination service for elderly persons and people with special needs who have registered for the Home Vaccination Service across Hong Kong starting from Monday (August 15). The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, said today (August 12), "To facilitate the vaccination of elderly persons with a suitable number of vaccine doses as soon as possible, we need to adopt a new mode of operation to cut down administrative procedures, shorten the liaison time and streamline the workflow of the Home Vaccination Service, so that more elderly persons can have early protection. "Under the new operation mode, the Government will commission and assign medical organisations for each and every district to provide through-train services: from making phone calls to people registered for the service for arranging appointments to mapping the itinerary and providing door-to-door vaccination service, all to be handled directly by the medical organisations. As the designated medical organisations in districts will be tasked to follow up on the cases of persons who have registered for the service all the way through, it is expected that the service arrangements will be more flexible, thoughtful and efficient." Since the launch of the Home Vaccination Service in mid-April this year, more than 31 400 registrations have been received and nearly 1 700 outreach teams have been deployed to administer over 34 300 vaccine doses to elderly persons aged 70 or above and persons who have difficulties to go out for vaccination due to illness or physical disability across the territory. Alongside the increasing number of service users, the number of cases due for receiving the second to the fourth doses of vaccine is expected to rise too. Starting from August 15, the Government will inform persons who have registered for the service in batches on the name and the enquiry number of the medical organisation assigned to serve them by SMS notification or by post in the order of the due date of their next vaccine dose. They are advised to wait for the medical organisation to contact them patiently. Members of the public should note that the COVID-19 vaccination service is free of charge and medical organisations will not charge the vaccine recipients any fees. Unvaccinated elderly persons aged 70 or above and persons who are unable to go out for vaccination due to illness or physical disability please visit the website ( www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/hv/ ) or call 5688 5234 from 9am to 6pm from Monday to Friday, except public holidays, to register for the Home Vaccination Service.