The banquet, which a number of officials attended on January 3, may involve another preliminary positive case. Chief Executive Carrie Lam said today if the case is confirmed eventually, all participants will be required to undergo quarantine.

Issuing a statement today, Mrs Lam noted that she learnt from the Centre for Health Protection that the banquet may involve another preliminary positive case who attended the event from 6pm to 8pm.

She said if the case is confirmed eventually, all participants will be classified as close contacts and are required to be sent to the Penny's Bay Quarantine Centre for quarantine.

In other words, the eight officials, who were not required to be subject to quarantine given the attendance at the banquet after 9.30pm in relation to the first confirmed case, will be classified as close contacts who need to be subject to quarantine.

Having regard to the latest development and the report by several more officials who had attended the banquet, in addition to Secretary for Home Affairs Caspar Tsui, Director of Immigration Au Ka-wang and Political Assistant to the Secretary for Development Allen Fung who attended the banquet after 9.30pm and were sent to the quarantine centre, 10 more officials will be arranged to be sent to the quarantine centre, while pending confirmation by the centre in due course on the status of the new infection case.

The Chief Executive has instructed all officials being subject to quarantine that they should not continue to discharge their duties and that they are required to take their own vacation leave for quarantine.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has made appropriate arrangements to ensure that daily operations will not be affected.

Deputy Commissioner / Head of Operations of the Independent Commission Against Corruption Ricky Yau will be the ICAC Acting Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Management) Kwok Yam-shu will be the Acting Commissioner of Police, Deputy Director of Immigration Benson Kwok will be the Acting Director of Immigration.

Taking into consideration that both the Directors of Bureau and the Under Secretaries of the Home Affairs Bureau and the Financial Services & the Treasury Bureau need to undergo quarantine, Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip will take up the post of the Secretary for Home Affairs concurrently.

Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Edward Yau will take up the post of the Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury concurrently.

All these posting arrangements will last until the completion of the quarantine of the relevant officials.

As to whether the attendance of 13 officials at the banquet constitutes any breach of discipline, Mrs Lam has instructed the Director of the Chief Executive's Office Chan Kwok-ki and Mr Nip to make detailed investigations.

Mr Chan will handle the investigation of 10 politically appointed officials and the ICAC Commissioner Simon Peh, while Mr Nip will handle the investigation of two heads of department who are civil servants.

The investigation will cover the detailed circumstances of the attendance of each official at the banquet, including the time of arrival, duration of stay and their behaviours there.

The investigation and enforcement action by the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) under the Prevention & Control of Disease (Requirements & Directions) (Business & Premises) Regulation, covering such aspects as whether the attendee used the LeaveHomeSafe app and wore a mask, will also be taken as reference.

As regards enforcement actions against the restaurant and customers, Mrs Lam has requested the FEHD to investigate according to the law as soon as possible and inform the public of the investigation results at a timely moment.

Mrs Lam reiterated that the whole society’s concerted efforts are needed to fight the virus and that Government officials should lead by example, abide by the rules, stay vigilant and refrain from taking part in high-risk activities.

After the completion of the investigations, she will take appropriate actions against the relevant officials, she added.