kakase/hk_gov_press_release huggingface dataset:
CSB calls on government staff to conduct three-day rapid antigen tests
7.4.2022

The Civil Service Bureau (CSB) appeals to government staff to use rapid antigen test (RAT) kits to conduct self-tests in the mornings of three consecutive days starting from tomorrow (April 8) for early identification of infected COVID-19 cases and cutting silent transmission chains as early as possible. The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, said, "Being the backbone of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, the civil service plays an important role in anti-epidemic work and is at the forefront in the fight against the virus. As the Government has been gradually resuming public services from early this month, with a view to largely resuming normal public services from April 21, the people flow at government buildings will likely increase. Although the situation of the fifth wave of the epidemic has been subsiding, we must not let our guard down. Government staff should conduct tests with the RAT kits in the anti-epidemic service bags distributed earlier by the Government to members of the public." In order to identify infected persons early for appropriate follow-ups for the protection of colleagues and the public, the CSB has sent an email to heads of bureaux and departments to appeal to departmental staff for their co-operation in the RAT exercise and reporting of positive cases, thereby cutting the silent transmission chains and reducing the transmission of the virus in offices, the community and families. Suitable isolation arrangements or treatment will also be provided for confirmed patients. Mr Nip said, "I also appeal to all members of the public to unite with one heart to fight the epidemic by conducting RATs in tandem and getting vaccinated to protect themselves and others." To beat the epidemic, persons aged 3 or above should receive COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible. Members of the public who have yet to receive COVID-19 vaccination should get vaccinated immediately, and for those who have received their first or second doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, they should receive their second or third doses on time so as to maintain the protection conferred by the vaccination. Persons aged 18 or above who have already received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine can receive their third dose three months after their second dose. The designated website for the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme ( www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/en/programme ) provides the latest information including details on vaccination venues, reservations and enquiry hotlines.
Civil Service College holds third talk of series on country's foreign affairs (with photo)
31.3.2022

The Civil Service College (CSC) today (March 31) held the third 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. The talk, which was on the topic of the "South China Sea Issue", was delivered via video-conferencing by Deputy Director-General of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Mr Yang Renhuo. Addressing the talk, the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, said, "This year marks the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. The implementation of the Declaration is of great and positive significance to safeguarding our country's sovereignty and rights and interests, upholding peace and stability in the South China Sea region, and enhancing mutual trust between our country and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Hong Kong has close ties with ASEAN. Acquiring a more comprehensive grasp and understanding of the "South China Sea Issue" will definitely enable civil servants to act in better concert with the country's overall approach in handling the relevant areas of work." The series on the country's foreign affairs, which started in January this year, involves monthly talks delivered by relevant officials of the MFA covering various topics. The series is a key training programme launched by the CSC for civil servants in the directorate and senior ranks.
SCS inspects door-to-door vaccination service by non-government organisation (with photos)
30.3.2022

The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, visited a household at Fortune Estate in Sham Shui Po today (March 30) to learn more about the door-to-door vaccination service provided by a non-governmental organisation to the elderly and persons with disabilities living at their homes so as to prepare for the Home Vaccination Service that will soon be launched by the Government. "Receiving COVID-19 vaccination is effective in reducing the risk of serious illness and death from infection. Although we have set up additional vaccination venues in various places and the four mobile vaccination stations have visited a number of housing estates to facilitate vaccination of people residing in the vicinity, there are still some people with special needs who are unable to go to vaccination venues due to impaired mobility. Further increasing the vaccination rate of the elderly requires the concerted efforts of social welfare organisations, healthcare institutions and members of the local community. Today's door-to-door vaccination service is an example of such efforts," Mr Nip said. The Hong Kong Council of Social Service and the Federation of Medical Societies of Hong Kong have rolled out the Door-to-Door Vaccination Service earlier to provide a COVID-19 vaccination service to people with special needs. Their healthcare personnel visited various places in Sham Shui Po to provide the vaccination service to service recipients today. "The Government will launch a platform soon to enable those in need to register for home vaccination. After collecting and collating their information, we will arrange for outreach medical teams to vaccinate the elderly and persons with disabilities who have impaired mobility at their homes. At this stage, we will seek district organisations' assistance in collecting information from elderly persons aged 70 or above who are yet to get vaccinated, and persons who are unable to leave their homes for vaccination due to illness or physical disability, for registration in the platform during their community care campaigns to distribute materials and home visits." He added that the Civil Service Bureau will first conduct a trial at a building that is under a "restriction-testing declaration" (RTD) operation in a specified "restricted area" to register elderly persons aged 70 or above who are yet to get vaccinated, and persons who are unable to leave their homes for vaccination due to illness or physical disability, to receive door-to-door vaccination service the next day after the RTD operation. After consolidating the experience from the trials and streamlining the vaccination workflow, the Government will further expand the services to buildings under RTD operations. 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
26.3.2022

âFollowing is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, at a media session after attending a radio programme this morning (March 26): Reporter: Could you tell us more about the outreach programme that you are preparing for people... Secretary for the Civil Service: We are now working on home vaccination scheme. At present, there are NGOs or district organisations piloting home vaccination. We are now planning for the home vaccination scheme to reach out to those elderly aged 70 and above who are homebound and find it very difficult to even to go to our mobile vaccination units or the CVCs (Community Vaccination Centres) to get the jab. And also for those persons with disabilities, also homebound, we would arrange outreach medical team to administer vaccines at their homes. So we are now doing two things, first is to build up an online platform for the people, those in need to register so we can get hold of their information, their addresses so that we can plan for the outreach mission. Secondly, we are lining up the medical teams with the medical organisations, the healthcare teams to do the outreach. We would plan accordingly to send these outreach teams to different districts and to reach out to those elderly and persons with disabilities that are in need of vaccination at home. At present, there are already organisations piloting this programme. We welcome that and we provide full support to them. And, we also liaise with district organisations through their outreach work to those families in need, to provide supplies to them, to care for them so that through that opportunity they can also find out those elderly persons and persons with disabilities that require this home vaccination service. So we could build up our database and then we can send our outreach healthcare team to do home vaccination. We hope that by so doing, it can help increase the vaccination rate for those aged 70 and above because that's our current priority. (Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
SCS inspects vaccination venues (with photos)
26.3.2022

The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, today (March 26) went to Kwun Tong to inspect a Community Vaccination Centre (CVC) and a community vaccination event. He appeals to members of the public to receive their first, second and third doses of the COVID-19 vaccine so as to maintain the protection conferred by the vaccination. At the Millennium City 5 CVC, he inspected the centre's vaccination arrangements for administering the Sinovac vaccine to persons aged 3 or above. The venue of the CVC is provided free of charge by Sun Hung Kai Properties. As in other CVCs providing the Sinovac vaccination, the centre distributes same-day tickets to children and teenagers aged 3 to 17 and elderly persons aged 60 or above. Mr Nip then attended a COVID-19 vaccination day in Kwun Tong district at the Sau Mau Ping Community Hall. The event was co-organised by various organisations. He encouraged organisations and members of the local community to work together to promote vaccination at district level. "The Government has set up an addition of 18 vaccination centres since January. Quotas for vaccination are available at vaccination centres and booking for vaccination can be made very easily. In order to protect ourselves and return to a relatively normal way of life, we endeavour to boost the second dose vaccination rate to 90 per cent and boost the vaccination rate for children, teenagers, the elderly and residents of residential care homes by the end of April. Everyone can help promote vaccination and encourage their family and friends to receive vaccination as soon as possible," he 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. Persons receiving the vaccination have to bring along original identity documents. If children's identity documents do not bear the child's photo, such as the birth certificate, then school documents (such as school handbooks) bearing a photo of the student must be presented at the time of vaccination. For children and teenagers aged 3 to 17 receiving the Sinovac vaccine, they must bring along a consent form signed by their parents on the date of vaccination. Please use the following version of consent form ( www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/pdf/Consent_Form_for_COVID19_Vaccination_ENG.pdf ). In addition, children aged 3 to 11 receiving the Sinovac vaccine must be accompanied by their parents/guardians in person when receiving vaccination.
SCS and Administrative Officers Service Team help distribute anti-epidemic supplies in district (with photos)
20.3.2022

The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, joined by a service team comprised of Administrative Officers, took part in an activity organised by the Hong Kong Community Anti-Coronavirus Link this morning (March 20) to distribute anti-epidemic supplies to some households in Kowloon City District and to learn about their needs. After the event, Mr Nip said "The Government assumes the primary responsibility in anti-epidemic work. While the Government is making all-out efforts to fight against the epidemic, I noticed that a lot of people have been providing support at district level enthusiastically. Since the fifth wave of the epidemic, people from various sectors of the community have been joining hands to provide assistance to those in need. I am very grateful for the contributions of the unsung heroes and expect more people to respond actively to make a collective effort in this fight against the epidemic in order to beat it as early as possible. This wave of epidemic has greater impacts on the lower income families, whose financial situation may be a bit tight, facing difficulties in procuring useful anti-epidemic items. I hope that activities such as the one we took part today can bring them timely assistance." Apart from the Secretary for the Civil Service, the event today was joined by a service team comprised of 20 serving Administrative Officers from a number of government bureaus and departments, including Permanent Secretary and Head of Department and Administrative Officers of different ranks. The service team aims to allow serving and retired colleagues from the Administrative Officer Grade to participate in voluntary anti-epidemic work.
SCS appeals to public to receive second and third doses of COVID-19 vaccine on time (with photos)
19.3.2022

The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, today (March 19) appeals to members of the public who are yet to receive COVID-19 vaccination to get vaccinated immediately, and for those who had received their first and second doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, they should receive their second or third doses on time so as to maintain the protection conferred by the vaccination. Currently, persons aged 18 or above who have already received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine can receive their third dose three months after their second dose. He said the Government's target is to boost the second dose vaccination rate to 90 per cent as quickly as possible and will continue to spare no efforts in facilitating the vaccination of the elderly and children. He went to the Kowloon Masjid and Islamic Centre this afternoon to inspect the BioNTech vaccination of male and female Muslims in separate spaces by an outreach team. &ldquo;To cater for the needs of people with different religions, the Civil Service Bureau has especially arranged an &lsquo;all-female' outreach team to help female Muslims get vaccinated. If other organisations or communities would like to have special arrangements for vaccination due to reasons such as religions, we will try our best to facilitate them so that more people can receive protection from vaccines,&rdquo; said Mr Nip. The designated website for the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme ( www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/en/programme ) provides the latest information including vaccination venues, reservation and enquiry hotlines. Apart from making reservations for vaccination, all Community Vaccination Centres (CVCs) providing the Sinovac vaccine distribute same-day tickets to children and teenagers aged 3 to 17, and elderly persons aged 60 or above. Fourteen CVCs providing the BioNTech vaccine to persons aged 12 or above (excluding the CVC at the CUHK Medical Centre in Sha Tin and the Satellite Community Vaccination Centre at Leighton Centre in Causeway Bay) also distribute same-day tickets to persons aged 12 to 17 and elderly persons aged 60 or above.
CSB officer tests positive for COVID-19
14.3.2022

The Civil Service Bureau (CSB) today (March 14) said that a staff member of the CSB has tested positive for COVID-19. The officer is the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary for the Civil Service. He usually works in the office and he wore masks and followed relevant disease prevention measures at work. He has no recent travel history. He last went to work on March 12. The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, has been taking COVID-19 rapid tests every day and the results are all negative. The CSB will conduct a thorough cleaning and disinfection at the relevant offices and arrange relevant staff members to undergo COVID-19 tests in accordance with the advice from the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health.
SCS inspects Hong Kong Spinners Industrial Building Community Vaccination Centre (with photos)
11.3.2022

The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, and the Group Deputy Chairman of the Fung Group, Dr William Fung, today (March 11) jointly inspected the operation of the Hong Kong Spinners Industrial Building Community Vaccination Centre (CVC). The centre is dedicated to providing the Sinovac CoronaVac vaccination service to children and teenagers aged 3 to 17 and persons aged 60 or above. Mr Nip said, "This is the second vaccination centre set up by the Government and dedicated to providing the Sinovac vaccine to children, teenagers and elderly persons. It can provide over 2 000 doses to the public every day for the convenience of people in Kowloon West and New Territories West. Currently, we have a total of three vaccination centres providing the Sinovac vaccine and dedicated to children, teenagers and the elderly. The first one is the CVC at Hong Kong Central Library. The third one is the Millennium City 5 CVC, which commenced operation today. In addition, there are four vaccination centres dedicated to administering the BioNTech vaccine to children aged 5 to 11. "We are grateful to the Fung Group for providing this venue at Hong Kong Spinners Industrial Building free of charge and enabling the setting up of this vaccination centre, so that more people can have vaccine protection early." The Hong Kong Spinners Industrial Building CVC is located at the ground floor of Hong Kong Spinners Industrial Building Phases 1 and 2 at 800 Cheung Sha Wan Road. It is next to Exit B1 of Lai Chi Kok MTR Station and easily accessible by public transport. The centre will be open daily from 8am to 8pm and will be closed between 1.30pm and 2.30pm for cleaning. In addition to taking prior bookings for vaccination, the CVC will also distribute same-day tickets to children, teenagers and elderly persons. Persons receiving vaccination have to bring along original identity documents. If children's identity documents do not bear the child's photo, such as the birth certificate, then school documents (such as school handbooks) bearing a photo of the student must be presented at the time of vaccination. For children and teenagers aged 3 to 17 receiving the Sinovac vaccine, they must bring along a consent form signed by their parents on the date of vaccination. Please use the following version of the consent form ( www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/pdf/Consent_Form_for_COVID19_Vaccination_ENG.pdf ). In addition, children aged 3 to 11 receiving the Sinovac vaccine must be accompanied by their parents/guardians in person when receiving vaccination. 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.
CSB secretary tests positive for COVID-19
8.3.2022

The Civil Service Bureau (CSB) today (March 8) said that a secretary has tested positive for COVID-19. The secretary is responsible for providing secretarial support to the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip. She does not need to have contact with the public in performing her duties and she wore masks and followed relevant disease prevention measures at work. She has no recent travel history. She last went to work on March 7. Mr Nip has been taking COVID-19 rapid tests every day and the results are all negative. The CSB will conduct thorough cleaning and disinfection at the relevant offices and arrange for relevant staff members to undergo COVID-19 tests in accordance with the advice from the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health.
Experts from NHC continue its visit in Hong Kong (with photos)
6.3.2022

The Mainland expert delegation led by the Head of the National Health Commission's COVID-19 leading task force, Professor Liang Wannian, continued its visit today (March 6). Some members of the delegation visited a Community Vaccination Centre and the Fire and Ambulance Services Academy to exchange views with staff members in the morning. Professor Liang and the delegation then had work meetings with the health authorities in the afternoon. Accompanied by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, some members of the delegation started their itinerary this morning at the Community Vaccination Centre at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park Sports Centre to learn about its operation, and received a briefing on the latest progress of Hong Kong's COVID-19 Vaccination Programme, the workflow of vaccination, different channels for receiving vaccination service as well as various measures to speed up the pace of vaccination of elderly persons and students. Members of the delegation also visited the Director's Command Post (DCP) at the Fire and Ambulance Services Academy this morning. Staff members of the Fire Services Department (FSD) briefed the representatives on the purpose, organisational structure and daily operations of the DCP. They also shared experience and conducted a thorough exchange of views. The DCP is mainly responsible for co-ordinating and contacting confirmed COVID-19 patients, and arranging "anti-epidemic minibus" to convey the patients to community isolation facilities. In addition, the DCP is also responsible for providing logistical support for "restriction testing declaration" operations in the "restricted areas" and assisting the Government in breaking the chain of transmission within the community as soon as possible. Professor Liang and the delegation had work meetings with representatives from the Food and Health Bureau, the Department of Health (DH) and the Hospital Authority (HA) in the afternoon to discuss about treatment of COVID-19 patients, and to give recommendations on the priority on anti-epidemic strategy and on areas of enhancement based on observations in the past few days. The Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Sophia Chan; the Permanent Secretary for Food and Health (Health), Mr Thomas Chan; the Director of Health, Dr Ronald Lam; the Controller of the Centre for Health Protection of the DH, Dr Edwin Tsui; and the Chief Executive of the HA, Dr Tony Ko, were also present. Led by Professor Liang, the delegation came to Hong Kong on February 28. They were joined by the four epidemiological experts who arrived in Hong Kong earlier to conduct visits in Hong Kong.
CSB officer tests positive for COVID-19
6.3.2022

The Civil Service Bureau (CSB) today (March 6) said that a staff member of the CSB has tested positive for COVID-19. The officer is the Press Secretary to the Secretary for the Civil Service. She usually works in the office and she wore masks and followed relevant disease prevention measures at work. She has no recent travel history. She last went to work on March 4. The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, has been taking COVID-19 rapid tests every day and the results are all negative. The CSB will conduct a thorough cleaning and disinfection at the relevant offices and arrange relevant staff members to undergo COVID-19 tests in accordance with the advice from the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health.