Act together against disease: CE

February 5, 2020

Chief Executive Carrie Lam: 
We have been very vigilant in monitoring the situation, taking into account the advice of my in-house experts as well as external experts who were subsequently appointed to the Chief Executive’s expert advisory panel towards the latter part of January.

So we have taken into account all these factors in making sure that the strategy remains one to prevent and reduce the chances of this infection in Hong Kong, and also to adopt the measures which are most needed at every stage of the situation.

Let's have confidence in Hong Kong. We have a very robust public health system. We have excellent medical and health personnel. I should add, we also have adequate public resources and we have a population which has gone through several of these infectious diseases. So they should be more alert to the various precautionary measures that the Centre for Health Protection has asked them to comply with.
 
One of my expert advisors was a former Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization Prof Keiji Fukuda.

He made this a very strong point that in every society, every community, in order to combat a public health crisis, it requires society to put aside their differences in order to act together.

You can imagine if we roll out one measure after another, including controlling the boundary points, reducing traffic or now going for mandatory quarantine, if members of the community refuse to comply or refuse to adopt the various precautionary measures and still want to go out and interact, that would create difficulties for our fight against this disease.

I remain optimistic that with the favourable circumstances, the experience that we have gained in the past, we should be able to fight this together.

But here, I make another very sincere appeal that this is really the time for us to put aside our differences and act together in order to overcome this public health crisis.

(To watch the video with sign language interpretation, click here.)

Chief Executive Carrie Lam today introduced further infection prevention and control measures, including requiring all people entering Hong Kong from the Mainland to be placed under mandatory quarantine for 14 days.

Mrs Lam announced the measures at a press conference this afternoon, where she also rejected suggestions the Government lagged behind in introducing measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in Hong Kong.

She pointed out it has been very vigilant in monitoring the situation since it was first notified of the virus.

Mrs Lam added the Government also makes sure its strategy prevents and reduces the chance of infection and that the necessary measures are adopted at every stage of the situation.

Responding to a question over worries about the disease, the Chief Executive urged the public to have confidence in Hong Kong's medical system.

“We have a very robust public health system. We have excellent medical and health personnel.

“We also have adequate public resources and we have a population which has gone through several of these infectious diseases. So they should be more alert to the various precautionary measures that the Centre for Health Protection has asked them to comply with.”

Mrs Lam also cited a point made by one of her advisors that in every society and every community, to combat a public health crisis, it requires society to put aside their differences in order to act together.

“If we roll out one measure after another, including controlling the boundary points, reducing traffic or now going for mandatory quarantine, if members of the community refuse to comply or refuse to adopt the various precautionary measures and still want to go out and interact, that would create difficulties for our fight against this disease.

“I remain optimistic that with the favourable circumstances, the experience that we have gained in the past, we should be able to fight this together.

“But here, I make another very sincere appeal that this is really the time for us to put aside our differences and act together in order to overcome this public health crisis.”