Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said he called #CarrieLam earlier today to keep her updated about Hong Kong's situation in face of #WuhanPneumonia
#BREAKING All passengers coming to Hong Kong via high-speed rail link will have to fill out health declaration form, and MTR will send staff to disinfect trains operated by its mainland counterpart, said Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung.
#JUSTIN Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung urged the public not to go to Wuhan unless necessary and if they must go, they should wear masks until 14 days after return to Hong Kong.
Education Bureau urges schools to postpone all learning trips to mainland China.
#JUSTIN International Chinese New Year Carnival in West Kowloon Cultural District will be cancelled.
Lunar New Year Cup football match on Sunday will be cancelled.
#JUSTIN Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said senior officials will meet major mask suppliers tomorrow and they expect a few batches of masks to arrive in town next week.
Among a few hygiene advice given by health secretary Sophia Chan there is one particularly on keeping U-shape pipes clean and filled with fresh water.
Google U-shape pipe and Amoy Garden for more info on the link with 2003 SARS outbreak.
Director of Health Constance Chan on close contacts of the two confirmed cases.
Case 1 has 8 close contacts - 3 are isolated and 5 not in HK; 46 other contacts, among which 6 showed symptoms and the other 40 without symptom are under medical watch.
Case 2 has 4 close contacts - 2 are in MacLehose quarantine camp, 1 in Prince Wales Hospital, 1 hospitalized and isolated. 17 other contacts have not shown any symptom.
Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung defended #CarrieLam's absence that WEF is a "very important" occasion to promote HK and her trip is actually very short.
Cheung added that all the new measures were decided by a whole day of meetings of him and other senior officials.
Asked about her coughing in yesterday's presser, Health Secretary Sophia Chan said her health is alright and if she doesn't feel well, she will wear a mask.
Asked by @rthk_enews why didn't the government (or he himself) extend the health declaration to high speed rail pax earlier, Matthew Cheung said he never ruled out the possibility and he raised this issue in today's meetings when they had a very "fruitful" discussion.
@rthk_enews Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said the government is "actively considering" to extend health declaration to cover all passengers flying in from mainland China.
@rthk_enews Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said he did not have the total number of Wuhan people in Hong Kong at that moment and he had to ask the Immigration Department.
Cheung added that he knew around 100 Hong Kong people are in Wuhan.
@rthk_enews#EARLIER asked by @appledaily_hk reporter if the government would ban mainland visitors from entering the city, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung said they can't make a decision of such "hypothetical nature" and that the city is not yet in an emergency status.
@rthk_enews@appledaily_hk Faces of officials trying to leave the room where reporters were shouting "is the government still going to appeal for mask ban?"
Matthew Cheung: We will have press conference like again. Happy lunar new year.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
#BREAKING HK top court ruled in favour of journalist @Baochoy’s appeal , quashing all her conviction and fines as the court found “there was no reason that bona fide investigative journalism … should be excluded from the phrase ‘other traffic and transport related purpose’.”
Choy was found guilty of “making false statement” 2 years ago for choosing the purpose of “other traffic and transport related matters” on the application form for car owner info from public registries controlled by the Transport Dept.
Choy’s search was for her award winning investigative report on #721YuenLongAttack in 2019. The application form then provided only 3 purposes for applicants after an amendment to remove the open-ended “other:” column in Oct 2019.
Tsui Hon-Kwong, veteran member of disbanded #HongKongAlliance - the group who hosted candlelight vigil for #June4 for three decades in HK, was taken away by police. He kept upholding his candle for #TiananmenMothers until police shut the door.
A man whose phone torch was on was taken away by police after a search. An officer snatched his phone as a group of officers escorted him into the search zone.
At a point people were lined up to wait for police search.
#BREAKING League of Social Democrats leader #ChanPoying was taken away minutes after she showed up with a small candle for #TiananmenMothers and two yellow flowers. She resisted and tried to uphold what she had in hands.
Heard LSD’s Chan Po-Ying said “why must police station? I don’t mind here.” before police bundled her into a police car.
Truck driver turned activist To Chi-kuen was taken away by police. He apparently carried nothing with him except wearing a tee that says “I don’t want to remember but I dare not to forget”.
#JUSTNOW This woman was taken away by police after a search. Not immediately clear what triggered the search. She upheld a small card with the Chinese characters “conscience” during the search. She wore a yellow mask, a black tee, a yellow skirt, and yellow socks with “Hong Kong”
“Going to a police station. Going to Wan Chai Police Station,” the woman shouted as police bundled her away.
A woman surnamed Cheung and in all black outfit was searched and let go by police. She told reporters police didn’t specify what made her suspicious and only checked her ID and bag. She took the search rather easy, “everyone knows what day is it today.”
#thread
On the protest-annulled Labour Day in HK, leftist party League of Social Democrats and the Women Workers Association would have small group petitions separately outside the government HQs to advocate for labour rights.
Before the 1st group LSD arrived , some 20-30 officers were seen deployed nearby with at least two holding a video camera to record the petition.
When Chan Po-ying, chairwoman of LSD arrived, an acting sergeant from the central police precinct read out an 8-point “reminder” to her. The points will be laid out in English translation from the next tweet.