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Following is the transcript of remarks (English portion) by the Controller of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health, Dr Thomas Tsang and the Sai Kung District Officer, Mr Peter Chan at a media session at the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village, Sai Kung this afternoon (May 7):
Controller of the Centre for Health Protection: Today we have 28 guests and friends departing this facility - the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village. They were here because of the quarantine requirement in connection with a flight which also had one of the Mexican patients on board who later tested positive for human swine flu. So, today we are glad that their quarantine period is over. We did daily medical examinations on these 28 guests and today we also did another round of medical examinations and we found them 100% fit for leaving the quarantine facility. Once again, my apologies for causing them inconvenience while staying in this camp, but I hope they understand this is a public health requirement in Hong Kong. I think many of them understand this and we talked a lot about their feelings. One last point, after all examinations we are 100% confident that their health status is good. They do not pose any risk of human swine influenza. I hope the community can treat them as any one of us.
Sai Kung District Officer: On behalf of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, I would like to thank once again those who have been quarantined in the past few days in the camp. Thank you for your tolerance and understanding. Over the past few days we have rendered our best assistance with the concerted efforts of departments concerned. We have set up an inter-departmental help desk to help them to attend to their special needs such as special food diet, catering requirements. For example, we have a baby here and we provided a baby cot for the baby. The main objective is to hope that we can ensure they have a more comfortable stay in the camp.
Reporter: What sort of medical examination have they taken and can the Government assure foreign governments that these people are safe for entry.
Controller of the Centre for Health Protection: Yes indeed. We have three teams of doctors today. We conducted medical examinations on these guests every day, basically checking their temperatures to see if they had a fever and also asking them for any symptoms, especially respiratory symptoms like cough, running nose and so on. We did a final round of medical examinations this morning and I am very happy that they all passed and we are very sure that they do not pose any threat or health risk.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Thursday, May 7, 2009
Issued at HKT 19:05
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