The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, visited the monitoring centre of the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) at the Customs Headquarters Building in North Point today (July 20) to give encouragement to colleagues participating in anti-epidemic work.

     Accompanied by the Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Mr Hermes Tang, and the Deputy Government Chief Information Officer, Mr Tony Wong, Mr Nip was briefed on the use of the multi-tech approach in monitoring persons under home quarantine. For instance, electronic wristbands and the "StayHomeSafe" mobile app, coupled with geo-fencing technology, artificial intelligence and big data analytics technologies, are being used to ascertain that persons under home quarantine are staying at their dwelling places.
      
     Mr Nip also chatted with colleagues on duty at the centre to know more about their work, including how they support persons under home quarantine to activate and use the "StayHomeSafe" mobile app, and how they handle their enquiries on home quarantine. He said he was pleased to know that apart from OGCIO colleagues, some serving and retired civil servants also also helping out at the centre as volunteers, with the serving civil servants taking up the volunteer work at the monitoring centre after their own work in order to help fight against the epidemic. 

     Mr Nip said, "The Government has all along been closely monitoring the epidemic situation in order to respond promptly. In view of the severity of the local epidemic situation, the Government needs to take further measures to significantly reduce the flow of people and social contacts to stop COVID-19 from further spreading in the community. As such, the Government has suspended non-emergency and non-essential services starting from today to enable colleagues to work from home, tentatively for one week. We will closely monitor the epidemic situation and review the arrangement in due course. 

     "Under the special work arrangement, many colleagues still have to work as usual to provide emergency and essential public services. They include colleagues from the disciplined services as well as other front-line colleagues and colleagues involved in anti-epidemic work from various departments. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to them for their dedication to duties and hard work amid the epidemic."

Ends/Monday, July 20, 2020
Issued at HKT 20:09

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