Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Coronavirus: most of Hong Kong’s 180,000 civil servants return to offices, but concerns persist about lack of protection for workers

Health experts stop short of insisting people should stay at home, but reiterate calls for social distancing, urging private-sector bosses to be flexible. Hong Kong records two new infections, including woman who returned from the virus-stricken cruise ship Diamond Princess, bringing city’s total to 100

Most of Hong Kong’s 180,000 civil servants returned to their offices on Monday after a month working from home as a drastic precaution against the coronavirus, despite persisting fears about inadequate protection and widespread concern that the risk of infection had not eased in any way over the past weeks.

While the government, as Hong Kong’s biggest employer, said it was trying to strike a balance between the need to protect its workforce and resume suspended public services, many in the private sector also followed its example, and trains and buses were more crowded than usual as employees trooped back into their office towers across the city.

“The public has expectations and needs for our services, so we should strike a balance between protecting our staff and ensuring our services,” Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said.

Health experts stopped short of insisting people should stay at home, but reiterated their calls for social distancing, urging private-sector employers to be flexible and officials to review their decision if it resulted in more infections.

“There are still risks of infection given there are a number of community cases, and we are yet to have a long period of zero cases,” Chinese University respiratory disease expert Professor David Hui Shu-cheong said. “If there are signs of a community outbreak again, the government should probably readjust to the previous arrangements.”



Hong Kong recorded two new infections on Monday, bringing the total to 100, including a woman who had returned from the coronavirus-stricken cruise ship Diamond Princess quarantined in Japan who tested preliminarily positive previously and a 63-year-old man, the brother of a 60-year-old confirmed patient.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan from the Centre for Health Protection stressed the need for continued social distancing and to avoid large public gatherings as much as possible.

A day earlier she had clarified that it was the government’s call to resume public services, and the centre’s health experts had not been involved in the decision-making.

Health minister Chan, on a radio show on Monday morning, admitted that not all civil servants returning to work could be provided with surgical masks.

She said the back-to-work decision had been made after officials discussed it with four members of an expert advisory group who did not object.

“It was not a discussion on whether work should resume, but rather an examination of what we should do to protect our staff,” Chan said.

Services involving immigration, water supply and housing were among those that resumed on Monday after a month-long suspension. Public swimming pools and indoor sports centres remained closed, while some other services resumed on an alternate-day basis.

Chan said civil servants had been told to have their temperature checked before work, take meals separately, and avoid social gatherings.

Echoing the advice of Chinese University‘s Hui, Chan stressed that “social distancing should be continued to contain the coronavirus epidemic”.

“Of course we are worried there could be a group infection, but the government has to consider the public’s expectation as well. We hope everyone does not take the epidemic lightly,” she said.

The Hong Kong Federation of Civil Service Unions earlier estimated that two-thirds of the city’s 180,000 civil servants would return to work on Monday, and that others in the private sector would follow suit.

Michael Ngan Mo-chau of the Union for New Civil Servants, a group that emerged from the anti-government protest movement, said some of its members were concerned about filling up offices again while the contagion was far from over.

“Departments can draft their own working schedules, such as flexible hours between 7am and 11pm, but we are worried whether these arrangements are effective, given the epidemic is not under control yet,” he said.

The health minister said priority would be given to frontline workers when distributing masks, and individual departments could procure their own supplies if necessary.

Chinese University’s Hui advised private companies to be more flexible than the government on work-from-home arrangements.

“It is understandable that the government might want to resume public services, but for private enterprises, if there is no emergency or necessary service provision, they do not have to follow the administration’s practice,” he said.

As one of the experts who advised the government, Hui said he had not been involved in any in-depth discussion and decision on whether and when civil servants should return to their offices. They had only provided the administration with precautionary suggestions, he said.

Businessman Jimmy Ng Wing-ka, who represents the Chinese Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong in the Legislative Council, said many small and medium-sized businesses had followed the government’s lead on Monday and called their employees back to the workplace.

He agreed that officials faced a dilemma in balancing the need to provide public services with the necessity to supply workers with enough masks.

“Probably, like other companies whose bosses might not be able to get hold of masks, civil servants should use their own masks under these special circumstances,” he said.

Lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun, who owns about 40 fashion stores under the G2000 chain in Hong Kong, said his company would provide each employee with a mask per day, and it was “not ideal” that the government could not do the same.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×