Press Releases

SFH on Exercise Amber

Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, this afternoon (January 25) after observing "Exercise Amber", which tested the preparedness of relevant departments and organisations in responding to novel influenza outbreaks:

Today, I am accompanied by the Director of Health, Dr Constance Chan, and the Controller of the Centre for Health Protection, Dr Leung Ting-hung, to inspect "Exercise Amber", a drill on response actions to public health issues. The objective of this exercise is to test out the newly amended contingency plan (Preparedness Plan for Influenza Pandemic) in case an outbreak of novel influenza infection in Hong Kong. It provides a chance for various healthcare organisations in the community such as elderly homes, as well as healthcare workers, to test out whether they could adhere to the spirit and the operational guidelines of the contingency plan. Taking this opportunity, I would also like to remind Hong Kong people to adhere to sound personal and environmental hygiene practices. No matter you are staying in Hong Kong or traveling elsewhere, please do not come into direct contact with wild animals, wild birds or poultry. As all of us know, eating wild animals as a seasonal cuisine is very dangerous practice and a lot of outbreaks of new infectious diseases are related to certain animals or birds which act as vectors of the diseases. Members of the public who are at high risk, for example people with chronic illness, elderly people and children, should consider receiving influenza vaccination. I would also like to mention that the new influenza vaccine used in Hong Kong is able to cover the currently circulating influenza viruses, including the H1N1, H3N2 as well as Influenza B.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)


Ends/Friday, January 25, 2013
Issued at HKT 17:24

NNNN