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The Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Mrs Carrie Yau, today (September 11) urged the public to keep up with good hygiene practices to protect themselves against SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and other communicable diseases.
Also the chairman of the Inter-departmental Action Co-ordinating Committee on SARS, Mrs Yau stressed that community effort would be needed in improving personal and environmental hygiene while the Government would also gear up its hardware and software to prepare for the attack of any communicable diseases.
"We need to take a multi-pronged approach to tackle this problem. We need to continue with our vigilance as there is a possibility that SARS will come back in winter.
"Although the probable SARS case in Singapore is an isolated case, it is a wake-up call to remind us of the need to sustain personal and environmental good practices," Mrs Yau said after visiting Fu Cheong Estate in Sham Shui Po.
Mrs Yau visited Fu Yuet House of the estate to see for herself the cleansing operations carried out by workers at the estate. She then toured the commercial complex nearby where she inspected the toilet facilities and disinfection measures.
The management of the public housing estate informed Mrs Yau that the cleansing of common areas had been stepped up following the alert in response to the Singapore case. The Housing Department is also continuing with the inspection of all drains as well as implementing the demerit point system to combat unhygienic practices.
Speaking to the media after the tour, Mrs Yau said Government bureaux and departments had been in touch with various trades and sectors to take action in order to sustain good hygiene practices developed in the past few months and to adhere strictly to precautionary measures.
On work on the Government side, the Tourism Commission has contacted major organisations in the trade reminding them of the importance of hygiene, cleanliness and prompt reporting, and asked them to draw their members' attention to the importance of diligently implementing all the preventive measures such as cleaning their coaches frequently and reminding tourists to adopt good personal hygiene practices.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has sent out a fresh round of letters to all 18 000 licensees of food premises including restaurants and food processing workshops reminding them to continue with good hygiene practices such as covering all ready-to-eat food, providing communal chopsticks and implementing effective pest control measures.
Measures taken by other departments include:
* Social Welfare Department has reminded welfare institutions to adhere diligently to preventive measures
* Labour Department has reminded employers to keep workplaces clean and hygienic and to grant sick leave to any sick staff.
* Transport Department has reminded public transport operators to continue frequent cleansing of the compartments of their carriers.
* Home Affairs Department has reminded property management companies to step up cleansing and disinfection of common areas of buildings.
End/Thursday, September 11, 2003
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